What Does 1 Corinthians 6:1 Mean in the King James?
Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
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 verse’s sharpest contrast is not between conflict and peace, but between misaligned judgment and a set-apart people.
THE MEANING
When conflict reaches the reader, this question asks whether the forum chosen matches the community’s set-apart calling. A dispute is not only about its claim; where it is brought shows whose judgment the reader treats as competent. The verse places the unjust court and the saints side by side, making that choice visible now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that a disagreement between believers is inherently outside the discernment of their set-apart community.
THE ROOT
ἀδίκων
adíkōn
GROWS FROM
δικ- (dik-) with privative ἀ- (a-)
The word family carries the idea of justice and what is right; the prefix negates it, yielding those outside that alignment.
“Unjust” points to more than a disliked person: it names judgment outside the alignment of what is right. That makes the contrast with the set-apart community a contrast between kinds of judgment.
ALSO GROWS
díkaios: just, right, aligned
δίκαιος
It names the positive form of the justice the verse says the court lacks.
dikaiosýnē: justice, righteousness, alignment
δικαιοσύνη
This branch makes visible the alignment that stands opposite to the “unjust” court.
adikía: injustice, wrongdoing
ἀδικία
It shows the same negated justice as a condition, not only as a description of people.
ἁγίων
hagíōn
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
hagi-
Set apart; belonging to a distinct or sacred sphere.
“Saints” names people as set apart, not merely as unusually virtuous. The verse presents them as a distinct community whose discernment is being passed over.
ALSO GROWS
hagiázō: set apart, consecrate
ἁγιάζω
It expresses the action associated with being set apart.
hagiasmós: setting apart, consecration
ἁγιασμός
It names the condition or process carried in the word “saints.”
πρᾶγμα
prâgma
GROWS FROM
πραγ-/πρασσ- (prag-/prass-)
An act or affair, something done or undertaken.
The “matter” is not a vague abstraction: the word carries the sense of an affair or deed at issue. The dispute is concrete, and the question is where that real matter is brought for judgment.
ALSO GROWS
prássō: do, act, perform
πράσσω
It links the dispute to something done or undertaken.
prâxis: action, deed, practice
πρᾶξις
It keeps the matter grounded in concrete actions rather than an abstract disagreement.
THE PATTERN
Disputes within a people are heard through a shared order of discernment, from an initial hearing to a wider authority.
And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.THE THREAD
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?In verse 1, “go to law” is κρίνεσθαι (krínesthai, to be judged); in verse 2, “judge” is κρινοῦσιν (krinoûsin, will judge), from κρίνω (krínō, judge or discern). The same root names both the judgment sought outside and the discernment attributed to the saints.
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