What Does 1 Corinthians 10:32 Mean in the King James?

Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:

1 Corinthians 10:32 · KJV

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

Here, “offence” carries the image of an obstacle in another person’s path.

THE MEANING

Your choices shape the path people around you meet, Jews, Gentiles, and God’s assembly. The word-picture is physical: a foot striking an obstacle, so your conduct can become something another person stumbles over. The verse keeps all three groups in view at once.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

My conduct affects only people in my own group.

THE ROOT

ἀπρόσκοποι

aproskopoi

GROWS FROM

⁨προσκοπ-⁩ (proskop-), from ⁨κόπτω⁩ (koptō)

To strike; in this word family, to strike against and stumble.

“offence” in this verse is aproskopoi. At the word’s center is collision: a foot striking against something and stumbling. Its negative form pictures a path without that obstacle, linking personal conduct to the way another person experiences it.

ALSO GROWS

proskoptō: to strike against; to stumble

προσκόπτω

It supplies the physical action beneath offence: a foot meeting an obstacle.

proskomma: a stumbling block; an obstacle

πρόσκομμα

It shows what conduct can become in the path of one of the groups named here.

THE PATTERN

Conduct becomes a shared matter when it can place an obstacle in someone else’s way.

Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:14 · KJVThe verse makes the obstacle literal: another person’s way must not be made harder by what you place in it.

But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

1 Corinthians 8:9 · KJVA choice that feels like freedom to you can become an obstacle in someone else’s path.

Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.

Romans 14:13 · KJVThe same pattern appears as a path kept clear of whatever could make another person fall.

THE THREAD

Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:

2 Corinthians 6:3 · KJV

The ⁨ἀπρόσκοποι⁩ (aproskopoi, “without causing a stumble”) here and ⁨προσκοπή⁩ (proskopē, “cause of stumbling”) in 2 Corinthians 6:3 share the ⁨προσκοπ-⁩ (proskop-, “strike against; stumble”) word family. Together they make the image tangible: conduct can become an obstacle that trips another person’s path.

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