What Does 1 Corinthians 6:6 Mean?
But brother is judged with brother, and this before those who do not trust.
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 brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.THE KEY
The Greek verb for going to law shares its root with the chapter’s word for judging the world: here, judgment turns inward against a brother in public.
THE MEANING
When a person who shares your belonging takes a dispute before outsiders, the conflict becomes a public display of that fractured bond. The verse brings the courtroom into view as part of what is happening between the brothers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a dispute is only about who is right: taking it before outsiders also puts the shared bond on display.
THE ROOT
κρίνεται
krinetai
GROWS FROM
κριν-
krin-
To separate, decide, or judge.
The verb κρίνεται (krinetai, is judged or brought to court) comes from κρίνω (krinō, to decide or judge). The same word family appears when this chapter speaks of judging the world, so the lawsuit is framed as judgment turned between brothers.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: Judgment or a decision.
κρίσις
The dispute is presented through the language of judgment, not merely as a disagreement.
kritēs: A person who decides a case.
κριτής
This branch makes the courtroom role implicit in the verb: one brother brings the other into judgment.
ἀδελφός
adelphos
GROWS FROM
δελφ-
delph-
The womb; in ἀδελφός (adelphos, sibling), the word carries the sense of one from the same womb.
The word translated “brother” carries a shared-family image beneath it. The conflict is not simply between two parties: it is between people named by their kinship to one another.
ALSO GROWS
adelphē: Sister.
ἀδελφή
The feminine form keeps the shared family meaning visible across siblings.
adelphotēs: Brotherhood or a community of siblings.
ἀδελφότης
The word extends siblinghood into a shared bond, the very bond this public conflict exposes.
ἀπίστων
apistōn
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust, reliance, or being firm; the prefix ἀ- (a-, without) marks its absence.
“those who do not trust” in this verse is apistōn. The audience is called ἀπίστων (apistōn, those without trust). The verse thus places the brothers’ dispute before people outside the trust named by the word family.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust or reliance.
πίστις
This is the trust whose absence marks the audience in the verse.
pistos: Firm, steady, or trustworthy.
πιστός
The contrast with ἀπίστων (apistōn, those without trust) brings steadiness and its absence into view.
THE PATTERN
Shared belonging calls conflict toward repair within the relationship before it becomes a public contest.
And Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray you, between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.And if your brother misses the mark against you, go and bring him into the light between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have won your brother.If it is possible, as far as your reach extends, live in wholeness with all people.THE THREAD
Have you not seen that the set-apart ones will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you too light for the smallest courts?The verb translated “goeth to law” comes from κρίνω (krinō, to judge or decide), the same root used here for “judge.” That echo links the brothers’ lawsuit to the chapter’s claim about judgment: the shared capacity to decide matters now appears turned against one another.
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