What Does 1 Corinthians 3:6 Mean in the King James?

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

1 Corinthians 3:6 · 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.

THE KEY

Human hands can plant and water, but the increase is life growing by God’s gift.

THE MEANING

Your work can plant and tend what is growing, but it cannot command the growth. God gives the increase as living growth beyond the workers’ control. Human tending and divine life meet here without becoming the same thing.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie this undoes is that every outcome depends on your effort alone; growth exceeds what the workers can produce.

THE ROOT

ηὔξανεν

ēuxanen

GROWS FROM

αὐξ-

aux-

grow, increase

“increase” in this verse is ēuxanen. The Greek verb ⁨ηὔξανεν⁩ (ēuxanen, “was causing to grow”) keeps the living process in view. Planting and watering matter as tending, while the growth itself exceeds what the workers can produce.

ALSO GROWS

auxanō: to grow, increase

αὐξάνω

This is the verb’s dictionary form, naming growth as an unfolding process.

auxēsis: growth, increase

αὔξησις

This related noun names the growth itself; Colossians 2:19 uses it for the body’s growth from the Head.

THE PATTERN

Life grows through human tending, while its increase is given by God.

So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

1 Corinthians 3:7 · KJVThe next verse makes explicit that planting and watering do not produce the growth; God does.

And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

Mark 4:27 · KJVThe seed grows beyond the sower’s understanding, even while the sower tends the field.

And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Colossians 2:19 · KJVThe body grows through its connection to the Head, with its increase described as God’s.

THE THREAD

And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

Mark 4:27 · KJV

Mark’s seed “grow up” belongs to the same Greek verb family, ⁨αὐξάνω⁩ (auxanō, “to grow”), as “gave the increase” here. The sower tends the seed, but its hidden growth unfolds beyond his control.

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