What Does 1 Corinthians 7:34 Mean?
There is also a parting between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman is pulled apart over the things of the Lord, so that she may be set apart in body and in breath. But the married woman is pulled apart over the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
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
There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.THE KEY
Both women are described with the same word for care; what changes is where that care is directed and what claims it.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you where your attention is claimed. The unmarried woman directs her concern to the Lord; the married woman also carries concern for the world’s things and how to please her husband. The verse names the unmarried woman’s body and breath as set apart, while showing how care can gather around different demands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Holiness concerns only an invisible inner self. Here the verse names the body and breath together as set apart.
THE ROOT
μεριμνᾷ
merimnâi
GROWS FROM
μεριμν-
merimn-
To be concerned or to care for.
“is pulled apart over” in this verse is merimnâi. The same Greek verb appears for both women: one concerns herself with the Lord’s things; the other with the world’s things and pleasing her husband. The word itself does not condemn care; the verse shows how its object shapes what occupies a life.
ALSO GROWS
merimna: Care, concern, anxiety.
μέριμνα
This noun shares the word family used for the woman’s concern in the verse.
merimnaō: To be concerned, to care for.
μεριμνάω
This is the verb repeated for both women, making their different concerns audible in the same word.
πνεύματι
pneumati
GROWS FROM
πνεῦ- (pneu-), from πνέω (pneō)
To breathe or blow; breath, wind.
The word translated spirit is pneuma, which also means breath or wind. Here it is named alongside the body as set apart, placing embodied life and breath in the same field.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To breathe, blow.
πνέω
This verb shows the breath and wind sense within the word family.
pnoē: Breath, wind.
πνοή
This related word makes the bodily sense of pneuma clear.
ἁγία
hagia
GROWS FROM
ἁγ-
hag-
Set apart.
“set apart” in this verse is hagia. The verse applies set-apartness to both body and breath. Holiness here reaches the whole person, not only an inward or invisible part.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: To set apart, make holy.
ἁγιάζω
This verb carries the root’s action of setting something apart.
hagiasmos: Set-apartness, consecration.
ἁγιασμός
This noun shows the resulting state named for the woman in the verse.
THE PATTERN
The direction of care reveals what claims attention, while a burden can be turned toward God.
And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are divided and stirred into an uproar about many things.Throw your load upon the LORD, and he holds you. He does not give the aligned one to totter for the ages.throwing all your divided care upon him, for you matter to him.THE THREAD
throwing all your divided care upon him, for you matter to him.The noun translated care and the verb translated careth belong to the same Greek word-family used twice here. One verse names what occupies your care; the other shows that care held by God.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us