What Does 1 Corinthians 14:5 Mean in the King James?

I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

1 Corinthians 14:5 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Here, speech becomes edification when its meaning can reach the assembly.

THE MEANING

The verse welcomes both kinds of speech, while giving greater value in a gathering to what the assembly can receive. When a tongue is interpreted, its meaning becomes available to the assembly as building-up. The measure is the good the gathered people can receive from it.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that the most spiritually striking expression is automatically the most valuable in a gathering.

THE ROOT

οἰκοδομή

oikodomē

GROWS FROM

⁨οἶκος⁩ + ⁨δομέω⁩ (oikos + domeō)

House-building; by extension, construction or building-up.

The Greek word keeps an architectural image beneath edifying: the act of building a house. Speech is pictured as material for a shared structure, and interpretation makes a tongue’s meaning available for the assembly to receive.

ALSO GROWS

oikodomeō: To build a house; to build up.

οἰκοδομέω

This verb carries the same house-building image as the verse’s edifying.

oikodomos: Builder.

οἰκοδόμος

The builder belongs to the same word family, revealing the architecture beneath the verse’s language of edification.

THE PATTERN

Speech and gifts reach their purpose when others can receive and be strengthened by them.

A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!

Proverbs 15:23 · KJVA timely word carries its value through the good it gives its hearer.

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.

Ephesians 4:29 · KJVSpeech is measured by whether it builds up those who hear it.

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

1 Peter 4:10 · KJVA received gift is put to use among others, so its purpose is shared.

THE THREAD

Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.

1 Corinthians 14:12 · KJV

The same house-building word appears again: the aim is to build up the assembly. Verse 5 shows how speech becomes something the assembly can receive; verse 12 makes that shared building the aim of spiritual gifts.

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