What Does 1 Corinthians 16:3 Mean in the King James?
And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem.
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 gift is called favor: what you share can reach toward wholeness through hands you trust.
THE MEANING
Your favor takes tangible form in what you share, then travels toward Yerushalayim through people you trust. The verse shows care moving by discernment and delegation, so it reaches beyond your own hands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that care only counts when you deliver it yourself: trusted hands can carry your generosity farther.
THE ROOT
χάριν
charin from charis
GROWS FROM
χάρις
charis
Favor freely shown; by extension, a gracious gift that makes favor tangible.
The word translated “liberality” is χάριν (charin), a form of χάρις (charis): favor or gracious gift. The contribution is favor made tangible, something the community entrusts to others to carry.
ALSO GROWS
charisma: Gift, gracious endowment
χάρισμα
The same word family shows favor taking the form of something given and shared.
charizomai: Grant freely, give as a favor
χαρίζομαι
Favor is something that moves between people through generous giving.
δοκιμάσητε
dokimasēte from dokimazō
GROWS FROM
δοκιμ-
dokim-
Test, examine, and recognize as genuine.
“approve” in this verse is dokimasēte from dokimazō. The people who carry the gift are approved through discernment. The favor is entrusted to people recognized as reliable, making generosity an act of shared and accountable care.
ALSO GROWS
dokimos: Approved, genuine, proven
δόκιμος
The carriers are recognized as trustworthy before the gift is placed in their hands.
dokimē: Proof, tested character
δοκιμή
Approval carries the sense of tested confidence, not an arbitrary choice.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Wholeness, completeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries shalom, wholeness, with a dual ending: two wholenesses. The gift travels toward a place whose name holds the wholeness generosity serves and shares.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness
שָׁלוֹם
The destination’s name echoes the wholeness toward which the gift is carried.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
The shared root holds the quality of being made whole within the destination’s name.
THE PATTERN
Shared favor becomes communal care when it is entrusted to people who carry it onward.
Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judæa:And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind:The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.THE THREAD
And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind:Both verses use χάρις (charis, favor or gracious gift) for the contribution being carried. The shared word reveals generosity as favor embodied: people chosen by the assemblies carry the community’s care onward.
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