What Does 1 Corinthians 15:54 Mean in the King James?
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
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 mortal is not discarded: it is clothed in what cannot decay, until death itself is swallowed.
THE MEANING
The body marked by decay is pictured wearing incorruption, and mortality wearing immortal life. Death is not the final image; it is the thing swallowed up in victory.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This dissolves the belief that death is the body’s final condition: mortality is clothed in life, while death itself is consumed.
THE ROOT
κατεπόθη
katepothē
GROWS FROM
πίνω
pinō
Drink; take in by drinking.
The verb’s image is consumption: death is not merely held at bay but taken down and swallowed. The verse makes death the thing consumed, not the final state of the mortal.
ALSO GROWS
pinō: Drink.
πίνω
This is the verb beneath the verse’s image of swallowing.
katapínō: Drink down; swallow up.
καταπίνω
The compound gives the verse its image of death being completely taken in.
φθαρτόν
phtharton
GROWS FROM
φθείρω
phtheirō
Corrupt, ruin, bring to decay.
The Greek connects what is corruptible with the language of corruption and decay. The word for incorruption keeps the same seed but negates it: what decays is clothed in what does not.
ALSO GROWS
phthora: Decay, corruption, ruin.
φθορά
It names the condition carried in “corruptible.”
aphthartos: Incorruptible; imperishable.
ἄφθαρτος
The same root appears with a negating prefix in the state the mortal puts on.
νῖκος
nikos
GROWS FROM
νικάω
nikaō
Conquer, prevail.
Victory here is the prevailing power in which death is swallowed. The verse presents it as an outcome that changes what can endure, not merely as a triumphal feeling.
ALSO GROWS
nikaō: Conquer; prevail.
νικάω
This verb names the prevailing force behind the noun “victory.”
nikētēs: Victor; conqueror.
νικητής
It names one who prevails, echoing victory’s force in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When mortal life is clothed with life that endures, death becomes the thing overcome and consumed.
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.THE THREAD
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.This is the saying the verse names as coming to pass: death is swallowed up in victory. Isaiah’s promise also joins that image to wiped tears and removed reproach, showing the breadth of what death’s end opens.
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