What Does 1 Corinthians 15:9 Mean in the King James?
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
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 word translated “persecuted” is a word for pursuit, so the verse exposes how much depends on where that force is aimed.
THE MEANING
The verse keeps two truths in view for you now: the speaker stands among those sent, while naming his pursuit against God’s assembly as the reason he feels unfit. Neither the sending nor the harm is erased; both remain in the same sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this loosens is that a real failure leaves no truthful name beyond the failure: the speaker names his harm and still names himself among the sent.
THE ROOT
ἐδίωξα
ediōxa
GROWS FROM
διωκ-
diōk-
To pursue or chase; in this verse, to pursue with hostility.
English “persecuted” names the harm but can hide the word’s motion: he chased the assembly. The same Greek verb can describe pressing toward a goal, so the underlying force is pursuit; this verse names its violent direction.
ALSO GROWS
diōgmos: Pursuit, persecution
διωγμός
This related noun names persecution as an ongoing pursuit, not merely a label for the person being pursued.
diōktēs: Persecutor, pursuer
διώκτης
This related word names the agent by the same motion, showing how the act of chasing can define a role.
ἀπόστολος
apostolos
GROWS FROM
στέλλω (stellō), send or dispatch; in ἀπόστολος (apostolos), with ἀπό- (apo-, away or forth)
στέλλω means to send or dispatch; the compound carries the sense of someone sent forth.
English “apostle” can sound like a title of rank; the Greek keeps the sending in it. That sharpens the verse’s tension: the speaker names himself among the sent while naming the harm he did to the assembly.
ALSO GROWS
apostellō: Send away, send forth
ἀποστέλλω
The verb keeps the direction of sending visible in the title “apostle.”
apostolē: Sending, mission, apostleship
ἀποστολή
The related noun for a sending or mission carries the same root, echoing the verse’s language of apostles.
THE PATTERN
Pursuit takes its character from the direction and object toward which it is aimed.
I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.THE THREAD
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.The Greek verb διώκω (diōkō), meaning “pursue,” appears here as “persecuted” and there as “follow after.” The shared word reveals the same force of pursuit directed toward different ends.
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