What Does 1 Corinthians 8:2 Mean in the King James?
And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
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
Certainty can be the very sign that knowing has not yet reached its proper depth.
THE MEANING
A claim to know does not certify that understanding is complete. This verse meets the reader where an answer feels settled and reveals that the knowing may still be unfinished.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that feeling certain proves you understand something fully.
THE ROOT
ἐγνωκέναι
egnōkenai egnō gnōnai
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
To know, recognize, or perceive; to come to know.
“knoweth” in this verse is egnōkenai egnō gnōnai. The verse repeats forms of the same Greek verb: the person thinks they have known, yet has not known as they ought. This family can carry the sense of recognition and encounter, so knowing is more than collecting facts or claiming certainty.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: Knowledge, knowing.
γνῶσις
This noun from the same root family appears in the preceding verse, where knowledge can puff up; English separates the noun from the verb, while Greek keeps them close.
epiginōskō: Recognize, acknowledge.
ἐπιγινώσκω
This compound retains the same knowing-root and brings recognition into view: knowing involves perceiving what is actually there, not merely asserting that one knows.
THE PATTERN
Knowing stays unfinished whenever the knower treats present understanding as complete.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.THE THREAD
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.The same Greek knowing-root appears here, where knowing is explicitly “in part.” That makes the “not yet” in 1 Corinthians 8:2 concrete: understanding may be real while still incomplete.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us