What Does 1 Corinthians 11:33 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
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 verb translated “tarry” carries the root sense of receiving: waiting for one another is part of welcoming one another to the table.
THE MEANING
At the table, waiting makes each person’s arrival part of the meal rather than an interruption to it. The gathering is mutual: no one is treated as included while another is still left waiting.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a meal is shared simply because people are gathered; if some eat while others are left waiting, the table has not yet included them.
THE ROOT
ἐκδέχεσθε
ekdechesthe
GROWS FROM
δέχομαι
dechomai
Receive, accept, welcome.
“tarry” in this verse is ekdechesthe. ἐκδέχεσθε (ekdechesthe, wait for) is a form of ἐκδέχομαι (ekdechomai, await), built on δέχομαι (dechomai, receive or welcome). English gives the timing; the root adds the posture of expecting someone as a person to be received, so the waiting itself becomes part of the table’s welcome.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: Receive, accept, welcome.
δέχομαι
This underlying verb gives the act of waiting a relational edge: the one awaited is someone to receive.
apodechomai: Welcome, accept, receive gladly.
ἀποδέχομαι
This related form names receiving as welcome, echoing how waiting can make room for another person at the meal.
THE PATTERN
Shared provision becomes truly shared when each person is included in its timing and care.
But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.THE THREAD
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.James uses the same Greek verb for the farmer who waits for the earth’s fruit. Here, waiting turns toward one another at the meal: the expected arrival is part of what makes the table shared.
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