What Does 1 Corinthians 8:10 Mean in the King James?

For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

1 Corinthians 8:10 · 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 Greek behind “emboldened” means “built up”: another person’s visible knowledge becomes a structure that can carry a weaker conscience into action.

THE MEANING

A person’s visible choice enters another person’s conscience: the one who sees you sitting there can be built toward eating, even while described as weak. What you know moves through the room as an example, shaping another person’s sense of what is possible.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that a choice remains private because it is permitted within one’s own understanding; another person’s conscience can take that visible choice as permission.

THE ROOT

οἰκοδομηθήσεται

oikodomēthēsetai

GROWS FROM

οἰκοδομέω

oikodomeō

To build a house; to build up or edify.

The verb carries the image of a house being built up, adding a structural layer to “emboldened.” The observer’s conduct supplies a framework that moves the weaker conscience toward eating.

ALSO GROWS

oikos: House, home.

οἶκος

The house is the concrete image behind the building language used for the conscience’s movement toward action.

oikodomē: Building, edification.

οἰκοδομή

This related word makes the verse’s inward change feel like construction: something is being built in the person who sees.

συνείδησις

syneidēsis

GROWS FROM

⁨σύν⁩ + ⁨οἶδα⁩ (syn + oida)

Knowing with; awareness accompanying a person.

“conscience” in this verse is syneidēsis. The word joins syn, “with,” and oida, “know,” carrying a sense of knowing-with. Here, that inward awareness is shaped in the presence of another person’s visible conduct.

ALSO GROWS

oida: Know, perceive.

οἶδα

This is the knowing at the heart of the word for conscience.

synoida: Know with; be conscious of.

σύνοιδα

This related form echoes conscience as awareness held alongside oneself.

THE PATTERN

An act in shared life can become either an obstacle or a structure that steers another person’s next act.

Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:14 · KJVThe stumblingblock makes another person’s unseen vulnerability part of the scene shaped by someone else’s action.

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Matthew 18:6 · KJVAnother person’s act can turn a little one’s path into a fall.

Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

Romans 14:19 · KJVHere, shared life is built through actions that edify another person.

THE THREAD

Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

1 Corinthians 8:1 · KJV

The Greek behind “edifieth” here and “be emboldened” in 8:10 belongs to the same house-building verb. In 8:10, another person’s visible conduct builds the weak conscience toward eating.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us