What Does 1 Corinthians 5:11 Mean in the King James?

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

1 Corinthians 5:11 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The table is not neutral here: eating together is a concrete form of the mixing this verse refuses.

THE MEANING

This verse speaks now with a hard boundary: a person bearing the name “brother” and marked by sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, abusive speech, drunkenness, or exploitation is not to be kept in close company. Even sharing a meal is named as part of that refusal. The name does not make the conduct disappear or require the community to enact fellowship as though nothing is wrong.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that a brother-title obligates the community to continue ordinary fellowship regardless of the person’s conduct is undone here.

THE ROOT

συναναμίγνυσθαι

synanamignysthai

GROWS FROM

μίγνυμι

mignymi

Mix, mingle.

“keep company” in this verse is synanamignysthai. The Greek verb pictures association as mixing together. The refusal of company is therefore a refusal of shared life, and the closing meal makes that boundary concrete.

ALSO GROWS

mignymi: To mix or mingle.

μίγνυμι

This is the seed verb under the association language: relations are pictured as mixing, not merely occupying the same space.

synanamignymi: To mix together with; to associate closely.

συναναμίγνυμι

This expanded form appears as “company with” in 1 Corinthians 5:9 and “have no company with” in 2 Thessalonians 3:14; here the verse makes the boundary unmistakable by naming a meal.

ὀνομαζόμενος

onomazomenos

GROWS FROM

ὄνομα

onoma

Name, designation.

“called” in this verse is onomazomenos. The Greek says a person is “named a brother,” putting a claimed identity beside the life described in the verse. The name matters, but it does not make the listed conduct weightless.

ALSO GROWS

onoma: Name, designation.

ὄνομα

“Brother” is the name the person bears, so the verse directly examines the identity carried by that name.

onomazō: To name or call.

ὀνομάζω

This verb gives the form translated “called,” making the brotherhood an identity openly named.

THE PATTERN

Scripture treats close association and shared tables as real forms of participation that carry meaning.

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

Proverbs 13:20 · KJVThe company a person keeps is shown as participation that shapes the path and its outcome.

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.

1 Corinthians 10:21 · KJVThe shared table is explicitly called participation, making eating together a meaningful bond.

And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.

2 Thessalonians 3:14 · KJVThe same boundary around close association appears when someone persists in disregarding the word.

THE THREAD

I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

1 Corinthians 5:9 · KJV

“Company with” is the same Greek verb as “keep company” here. Verse 9 first names fornicators; verse 11 extends the boundary to someone bearing the brother-name while marked by the other listed conduct, and makes its closeness concrete with “no not to eat.”

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