What Does 1 Corinthians 1:1 Mean in the King James?
Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse holds commission and kinship together: Paul’s calling comes through God’s will, and the called one stands beside Sosthenes as a brother.
THE MEANING
A calling takes its shape from the will that commissions it, rather than from self-appointment. The verse holds that distinct role within shared belonging: Paul is called an apostle, and Sosthenes is named “our brother.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a distinct calling means standing apart from others.
THE ROOT
κλητός
klētos
GROWS FROM
καλέω
καλέω (kaleō): to call, summon, or invite; κλητός is formed from this Greek verb.
κλητός (klētos, “called”) belongs to the καλέω (kaleō, “call”) family, alongside κλῆσις (klēsis, “calling”) and ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia, “assembly”). The call that gives Paul his commission also points toward belonging among a gathered people.
ALSO GROWS
klēsis: calling, summons
κλῆσις
This related form names the act of calling that stands behind the identity “called.”
ekklēsia: assembly
ἐκκλησία
This compound belongs to the καλέω call-family; its sense of assembly links a call to a people gathered together.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yēshūaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
ישע (yashaʿ): deliver, bringing someone out of constriction into spaciousness.
The Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, “Jesus”) corresponds to Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ, Yēshūaʿ), a name carrying the nature of deliverance. In this verse, the commission is named in relation to the one whose name holds that movement from narrowness toward room.
ALSO GROWS
yāshaʿ: to deliver, bring out
יָשַׁע
This verb shares the root’s consonants and names the action carried in Yeshua’s name.
yeshuʿah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the deliverance toward which the root’s action moves.
mōshiaʿ: deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form names the one who brings deliverance, illuminating the nature carried in the name Jesus.
ἀπόστολος
apostolos
GROWS FROM
στέλλω
στέλλω (stellō): to send or dispatch; with ἀπό- (apo, “away”), ἀπόστολος names one sent out.
The word translated “apostle” still carries the action of sending inside it. Beside κλητός (“called”), it presents a commission as a received sending, with direction as well as status.
ALSO GROWS
apostellō: to send out, dispatch
ἀποστέλλω
This verb shares the στέλλω family and makes the sending action explicit.
apostolē: sending, commission
ἀποστολή
This noun names the act or task of sending carried in ἀπόστολος.
THE PATTERN
A commission begins in God’s initiative and takes shape as service directed toward others.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:THE THREAD
Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:The same καλέω (kaleō, “call”) family returns: the Corinthians are “called to be saints,” while people everywhere “call upon” Jesus’ name. The call that commissions Paul opens into a shared identity across places, with Sosthenes’ “our brother” already pointing toward that wider belonging.
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