What Does 1 Corinthians 5:6 Mean in the King James?
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
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
Leaven’s hidden force is not its size but its reach: a little of it works through the whole lump.
THE MEANING
A small harm does not stay in one corner of the life it touches; it works through the whole. So the confidence that the shared whole remains untouched is already exposed as a boast, not a fact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a small wrong stays personal and cannot affect the whole.
THE ROOT
ζύμη
zymē leaven
GROWS FROM
ζυμ-
zym-
Leaven; fermenting material that makes dough ferment.
The Greek noun ζύμη (zymē, leaven) belongs to the same word family as ζυμόω (zymoō, to leaven or ferment): the verse places the agent and its action side by side. Its force is not that the leaven is large, but that its fermenting work reaches the entire batch.
ALSO GROWS
zymoō: To leaven or ferment.
ζυμόω
This verb shares the root ζυμ- (zym-, leaven/ferment) with ζύμη (zymē, leaven), making the verse’s noun and action one family.
azymos: Unleavened; without leaven.
ἄζυμος
This word keeps the ζυμ- (zym-, leaven/ferment) root while naming the state in which leaven is absent.
THE PATTERN
A small, hidden influence can work through an entire whole, for harm or for growth.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.THE THREAD
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:The same word family returns in ζύμη (zymē, leaven) and ἄζυμος (azymos, unleavened): the old leaven is purged so the new lump appears as already unleavened. The change comes by removing what spreads through the whole, not by adding a new ingredient.
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