What Does 1 Corinthians 6:15 Mean in the King James?
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
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 body itself is the contested ground: the very same limbs are named as Christ’s members and as what could be made a harlot’s members.
THE MEANING
Your body is not an isolated possession; its physical members are already named as Christ’s. The verse places sexual use directly against that belonging: the same members are involved in joining a harlot.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what happens with your body is separate from belonging to Christ dissolves here: the verse names the body’s members as Christ’s.
THE ROOT
μέλη
melē
GROWS FROM
μέλος
melos
limb, body part
The Greek word means a bodily limb or part, not simply someone enrolled in a group. The verse repeats the same noun for members of Christ and members of a harlot, putting the physical body itself at the center of the claim.
ALSO GROWS
melos: a limb or bodily member in the singular
μέλος
It keeps the image grounded in an actual part of a body.
melē: limbs or bodily members in the plural
μέλη
This is the repeated form in the verse: the same bodily members are named in relation to Christ and to a harlot.
Χριστοῦ
Christou
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
anoint
“Christ” in this verse is Christou. Christos means “the anointed one,” from the verb “to anoint.” The verse names the body’s members as belonging to the anointed one, making that belonging concrete and embodied.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: to anoint
χρίω
This is the verbal root behind the title used for Christ.
chrisma: anointing
χρῖσμα
This related word keeps the sense of anointing present beneath the title “the anointed one.”
THE PATTERN
Bodily life creates real relations of belonging; its parts are not detached from the whole or bond they enter.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.THE THREAD
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.This verse uses the same Greek word for “members” and names those members as parts of Christ’s body. It makes clear that 1 Corinthians 6:15 speaks of embodied belonging, one member at a time.
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