What Does 1 Corinthians 3:17 Mean in the King James?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
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 same verb names both the corruption of God’s temple and God’s response to the corrupter: corruption meets ruin.
THE MEANING
The reader belongs to a people who together are God’s temple, set apart in the present. The warning is severe: whoever ruins that shared dwelling meets God’s ruin.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The shared life of the assembly is ordinary, disposable space, so damage to it carries no weight.
THE ROOT
φθείρει
phtheirei
GROWS FROM
φθειρ-
phtheir-
To spoil, corrupt, ruin, or decay.
“defile / destroy” in this verse is phtheirei. The verse uses forms of the same verb for what a person does to God’s temple and what God does to that person. English gives the two actions different words; the Greek echoes one action back as its consequence.
ALSO GROWS
phthora: Corruption, decay, or ruin
φθορά
This noun names the state of ruin produced by the corrupting action in the verse.
diaphtheirō: To corrupt utterly, spoil, or destroy
διαφθείρω
This related verb makes explicit how the same word family can describe corruption reaching the point of destruction.
ἅγιος
hagios
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
hagi-
Set apart; sacred.
“holy” in this verse is hagios. The word for set apart describes God’s temple and, through “which temple ye are,” the people together. The assembly’s shared identity is part of what makes the warning against its ruin so severe.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: To set apart or consecrate
ἁγιάζω
This verb shows the action related to the temple’s set-apart identity.
hagiasmos: Setting apart or consecration
ἁγιασμός
This noun names the state of being set apart that the word “holy” carries here.
THE PATTERN
God’s dwelling is set apart, and harm to what is set apart carries severe consequence.
Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.THE THREAD
And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.The Greek verb φθείρω (phtheirō, to corrupt or destroy) appears twice in both verses: those who ruin the earth are themselves brought to ruin. Revelation widens the warning from God’s temple among the people to the earth itself.
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