What Does 1 Corinthians 7:13 Mean?
And if a woman has a husband who does not trust, and he is content to settle in the house with her, let her not let him go.
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
And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.THE KEY
The hinge is not shared belief but the husband’s willingness to share the home.
THE MEANING
A difference in trust does not by itself dissolve a marriage that remains willingly shared. While her husband is pleased to dwell with her, the verse says she is not to leave him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that spouses must end a marriage simply because they do not share religious trust.
THE ROOT
συνευδοκεῖ
syneudokei
GROWS FROM
συνευδοκέω
syneudokeō
Consent with; be pleased together.
σύν (syn, “with/together”) prefixes εὐδοκέω (eudokeō, “approve/be pleased”): the condition is his consent to shared dwelling, not a shared confession of belief. English “pleased” can sound like a feeling; the Greek phrase marks willingness alongside her.
ALSO GROWS
eudokeō: Be pleased; approve.
εὐδοκέω
This related verb shows the approval within the compound: his willingness concerns dwelling with her.
eudokia: Goodwill; good pleasure.
εὐδοκία
The related noun carries the sense of willing favor, reinforcing that his consent is the stated condition.
ἀφιέτω
aphietō
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
Send away; let go; leave; in some contexts, release or forgive.
“let go” in this verse is aphietō. The English “leave” here belongs to a Greek word family also used for letting go and release or remission elsewhere. That resonance exposes separation as the act being withheld under this condition; it does not make marital departure and forgiveness identical.
ALSO GROWS
aphentes: Having left; having let go.
ἀφέντες
This form of the same verb appears when the disciples leave their nets, showing its concrete sense of leaving something behind.
aphesis: Release; remission.
ἄφεσις
This related noun is rendered “remission” in some KJV passages, revealing the word family’s range of letting go and release.
ἄπιστον
apiston
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust; reliability; steadiness.
“does not trust” in this verse is apiston. The word names an absence of trust in the teaching; it says nothing by itself about whether he will share the home. The next clause states his willingness to dwell with her as a separate fact.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust; reliance.
πίστις
The positive noun names trust as leaning one’s full weight; its absence marks a difference in trust without deciding whether they remain together.
pisteuō: Trust; entrust oneself.
πιστεύω
The verb describes placing trust, which this verse keeps distinct from willingness to share a dwelling.
THE PATTERN
Shared life can continue across difference when those involved remain willing to dwell together.
A Song of degrees of David. Look, how good and how sweet it is for brothers to settle also together!Likewise, you wives, place yourselves under your own husbands, so that if any will not yield to the word, they may be gained without a word by the walk of the wives.If it is possible, as far as your reach extends, live in wholeness with all people.THE THREAD
But if the one who does not trust puts space between, let him go. A brother or a sister is not enslaved in such cases, for God has called us to wholeness.This verse draws the boundary around verse 13’s condition: shared life continues while the unbelieving spouse is willing to stay, but the passage addresses departure differently when he chooses to leave. Together, they make willingness to dwell, not shared belief, the hinge.
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