What Does 1 Corinthians 5:13 Mean?
But those outside, God will judge. Lift out the wicked one from among yourselves.
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
But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.THE KEY
Judgment of those outside is God’s; removing the wicked person from within belongs to the community.
THE MEANING
This verse assigns two different acts in the present: God judges those outside the community, and the community puts the wicked person out from among itself. “Therefore” makes that removal the consequence of the boundary just drawn.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the community is charged with judging those outside it; the verse assigns that judgment to God.
THE ROOT
κρίνει
krinei
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
to separate, distinguish, decide, or judge
“will judge” in this verse is krinei. The verb assigns judgment of those outside to God. Its root carries the sense of distinguishing or deciding, while the next sentence uses a different verb for removing the wicked person from among the community.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: judgment, decision
κρίσις
This related noun names the act or outcome of judging, clarifying the kind of action assigned to God here.
kritēs: judge
κριτής
This names the one who judges and makes the verse’s assignment of that role to God explicit.
kritērion: court, tribunal
κριτήριον
This names a place or means of judgment, extending the root’s sense of making a decision.
THE PATTERN
Judgment of those outside belongs to God, while the community removes wrongdoing from among itself.
The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall burn the evil out from your midst.Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even the Anointed One, our Passover, was slaughtered for us.In the day when God judges the covered things of humans, according to my good news, through Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
For what is it to me to judge those outside? Do you not judge those inside?The preceding line uses the same judgment verb to distinguish those outside from those within. This verse resolves that distinction: God judges those outside, while the community’s action concerns the person among itself.
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