What Does 1 Corinthians 10:22 Mean in the King James?
Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
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 Greek word-family joins jealousy with zeal, revealing the Lord’s jealousy as an active claim on allegiance rather than a passing mood.
THE MEANING
The question meets the reader wherever two allegiances seem compatible: the Lord’s claim is active, and the rival table is not neutral. The question about strength exposes how little human confidence can do to make that rivalry safe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a competing allegiance can be kept in place without consequence, as though human strength could control the conflict.
THE ROOT
παραζηλοῦμεν
parazēloumen
GROWS FROM
ζηλ-
zēl-
Ardent zeal, intense desire, or jealousy.
“provoke to jealousy” in this verse is parazēloumen. The Greek word-family holds zeal and jealousy together, showing the force of an attachment that will not treat rival allegiance as harmless. English can make “jealousy” sound like a passing feeling; here the word carries the weight of an active claim.
ALSO GROWS
zēlos: Zeal, ardor, or jealousy
ζῆλος
Its range shows that jealousy and ardent devotion belong to the same word-family.
zēloō: To be zealous, desire earnestly, or be jealous
ζηλόω
This related verb makes the shared force visible: intense desire can be devotion or jealousy, depending on what it meets.
THE PATTERN
Rival allegiance is not neutral before the Lord; it meets the force of a claim that cannot be outmatched.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.THE THREAD
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.The Greek translation of Deuteronomy uses παραζηλόω (parazēloō, provoke to jealousy), the same verb family as the question here. That shared root makes the question an echo of the earlier line: rival allegiance provokes the Lord’s zeal, and the next question asks whether anyone can outmatch that claim.
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