What Does 1 Corinthians 16:9 Mean?
For a great and working door has been opened to me, and many are set against me.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.THE KEY
The open door is already at work even while many stand against it.
THE MEANING
A real opening can stand before you while many oppose it. The verse holds access and resistance in the same moment; the resistance does not erase the opening.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a genuine opening must come without opposition.
THE ROOT
ἐνεργής
energēs
GROWS FROM
ἔργ-
erg-
Work, deed, activity.
“working” in this verse is energēs. The word translated “effectual” belongs to the Greek work-family: this door is not only large but active, already doing its work. Its activity remains real alongside the many adversaries.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: work, deed
ἔργον
Shows the work at the heart of the word translated “effectual.”
energeō: to work, be active
ἐνεργέω
Uses the same family to describe something actively at work, not merely present.
ἀνέῳγεν
aneōigen
GROWS FROM
ἀνοιγ-
anoig-
Open, uncover, make accessible.
“is opened” in this verse is aneōigen. The Greek form presents an opening whose result stands: the access is open now. Beside the active word for “effectual,” the verse describes an opening that remains available and operative.
ALSO GROWS
anoigō: to open
ἀνοίγω
The base verb names the opening that gives access.
dianoigō: to open fully, open up
διανοίγω
The related compound can describe an opening made clear or complete.
ἀντικείμενοι
antikeimenoi
GROWS FROM
κεῖμαι
keimai
Lie, be placed, be situated.
“set against me” in this verse is antikeimenoi. The word for adversaries is formed from ἀντί (anti, against) and κεῖμαι (keimai, lie or be situated): they are positioned against. The verse names real opposition without making it proof that the opening has vanished.
ALSO GROWS
antikeimai: to oppose, be set against
ἀντίκειμαι
This is the verb behind “adversaries,” showing opposition as something positioned against the way.
epikeimai: to lie upon, press upon
ἐπίκειμαι
The same base verb with a different prefix pictures pressure as something bearing upon a person or situation.
THE PATTERN
An opening becomes a passage through which faith and a message can move outward.
And when they had arrived and gathered the assembly together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of trust to the nations.Now when I came to Troas to bring the good news of the Anointed One, and a door was opened to me in the Lord,Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door of the word, to speak the hidden thing of the Anointed One, for which I am also bound.THE THREAD
And when they had arrived and gathered the assembly together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of trust to the nations.The shared Greek word θύρα (thura, door) links the openings directly. Acts names the passage as a door of faith opening outward; here, that opening remains real even while many are positioned against it.
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