What Does 1 Corinthians 14:4 Mean in the King James?
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.
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 uses one verb, “build up,” for both gifts: the difference is whether the speaker or the assembly is being built.
THE MEANING
When a tongue is not understood by the assembly, it builds the speaker; prophecy builds the assembly. Both are forms of building, but their reach differs. The verse holds private strengthening and shared strengthening as distinct effects.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what builds the speaker automatically builds the assembly.
THE ROOT
οἰκοδομεῖ
oikodomei
GROWS FROM
οἰκοδομέω (oikodomeō), a compound of οἶκος (oikos, “house”) and δομέω (domeō, “build”)
To build a house; figuratively, to build up.
“edifieth” in this verse is oikodomei. Greek repeats one concrete building verb for both the speaker and the assembly. “Edify” carries that building sense too, but the repeated verb makes clear that these are two objects of the same construction.
ALSO GROWS
oikos: House, household
οἶκος
This is the “house” element in the compound, making the building image concrete.
oikodomē: Building, construction, edification
οἰκοδομή
This related noun names the building up that the verse assigns first to the speaker and then to the assembly.
THE PATTERN
Words can wound or build; their effect is seen in what they leave in the people who receive them.
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.THE THREAD
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.Ephesians uses οἰκοδομή (oikodomē), “building up,” from the same οἰκοδομέω (oikodomeō), “build up,” word family. Here the whole body is built through what each part supplies, opening the verse’s contrast between speech that builds the speaker and speech that builds the assembly.
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