What Does 1 Corinthians 14:10 Mean in the King James?
There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
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 repeats one sound-root in “voices” and “without signification,” binding a voice to the meaning it carries.
THE MEANING
You live among many kinds of voices, and difference does not make any of them empty of meaning. A voice can carry something real before its sense is clear to you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a voice you cannot understand has nothing to say.
THE ROOT
φωνῶν
phōnōn
GROWS FROM
Greek stem φων- (phōn-), with privative ἀ- in ἄφωνον
Sound, voice; with ἀ-, without voice or sound, and in this context, without meaning.
“voices / signification” in this verse is phōnōn. The Greek sets phōnōn (“voices”) beside aphōnon (“without voice,” and here “without meaning”), repeating the φων- sound-root where English separates “voices” from “signification.” The wordplay holds audible voice and intelligible meaning close together: a voice unfamiliar to you still carries something to be understood.
ALSO GROWS
phōnē: Voice, sound
φωνή
This is the singular form behind “voices”; the verse speaks of many kinds of audible expression.
aphōnos: Voiceless, soundless; in context, without intelligible meaning
ἄφωνος
This is the form rendered “without signification,” echoing the voice-root in the preceding phrase.
phōneō: To sound, call, or speak
φωνέω
This related verb shows the same root moving from a voice or sound to the act of making it heard.
THE PATTERN
Meaning travels through voices, becoming audible in different ways to different hearers.
There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:THE THREAD
And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?The Greek uses the same φων- voice-and-sound root in “voices” here and “giving sound” there. The pipe and harp make the claim audible: distinct sound carries something that can be recognized.
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