What Does 1 Corinthians 4:13 Mean?
Being spoken ill of, we urge. We have become as the sweepings of the world, as the scrapings of all things, until now.
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
Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.THE KEY
The people treated as the world’s refuse still answer with appeal and comfort.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks where public contempt names a person as disposable: it does not soften the humiliation, which continues “unto this day.” Yet the one under attack still answers with an appeal or comfort.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being treated as worthless leaves nothing meaningful to offer: here, the voice under attack still carries an appeal.
THE ROOT
παρακαλοῦμεν
parakaloumen
GROWS FROM
παρακαλε-
parakale-
Appeal, urge, or comfort.
“urge” in this verse is parakaloumen. The word translated “intreat” can also carry the sense of urging or comforting. That range reveals a response to defamation that is more than pleading: the speaker still addresses others with appeal and comfort.
ALSO GROWS
paraklēsis: appeal, comfort, consolation
παράκλησις
This noun from the same word family holds together urgent appeal and consolation, the two shades present in the response.
paraklētos: advocate, helper
παράκλητος
This related word suggests support offered to someone, extending the sense of a response that can carry comfort.
περικαθάρματα
perikatharmata
GROWS FROM
καθαρ-
kathar-
Clean, cleanse, purify.
“sweepings of the world” in this verse is perikatharmata. The Greek word belongs to the cleansing family and evokes sweepings or refuse. Paired with “offscouring,” it pictures people treated as what the world brushes away, making the insult sharper than a general accusation of dirtiness.
ALSO GROWS
katharos: clean, pure
καθαρός
This related word names the clean state that contrasts with the refuse image used against the speakers.
katharizō: cleanse, make clean
καθαρίζω
This verb makes the connection to cleansing explicit: the “filth” evokes what is removed in the act of cleaning.
THE PATTERN
Hostility does not have to dictate the response of the person it targets.
And we toil, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we speak well. Being pursued, we hold up under it.Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you.In place of my love they stand against me, but I am prayer.THE THREAD
Who comforts us in all our pressure, so that we are able to comfort those in every pressure, through the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.The Greek verb παρακαλοῦμεν (parakaloumen, “we appeal or comfort”) in this verse belongs to the same word family as the repeated “comfort” in 2 Corinthians 1:4. That connection lets the reply under defamation carry both appeal and consolation, and shows comfort moving through speech even in trouble.
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