What Does 1 Corinthians 9:6 Mean in the King James?
Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
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 “power” here is a right to stop working for one’s own provision, not merely the ability to do so.
THE MEANING
Your service does not erase the question of what support you have a right to receive. This verse treats the option to refrain from earning your own provision as a real authority, not an imagined possibility. That right can exist even when it is not exercised.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that someone who serves has no legitimate claim to support and must always finance that service through personal labor.
THE ROOT
ἐξουσίαν
exousian
GROWS FROM
ἐξουσία / ἔξεστι (exousia / exesti)
Right or authority: the standing that makes an action permissible or within one’s power.
English “power” can suggest force or raw ability; ἐξουσία (exousia) names a right or authority. Paired with not working, it reveals a concrete freedom: laboring for one’s provision is not the only legitimate shape of service.
ALSO GROWS
exesti: It is permitted; it is lawful.
ἔξεστι
This related expression frames authority as what is allowed, so the “power” in the question is a recognized right, not just strength.
exousiazō: To exercise authority; to have authority over.
ἐξουσιάζω
The verb carries the noun into action and makes visible the difference between holding authority and using it.
ἐργάζεσθαι
ergazesthai
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
Work, labor, productive activity.
“working” in this verse is ergazesthai. This verb belongs to the same word family as “work” and “worker,” so the question concerns ceasing one’s own labor, not ceasing to serve. It places the right to forego self-supporting work beside ongoing service.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: Work; deed.
ἔργον
The noun names the work or deed produced by activity, connecting labor with what it accomplishes.
ergatēs: Worker; laborer.
ἐργάτης
The related noun names the person who works, making the verse’s question about labor itself concrete.
THE PATTERN
Service that sustains others carries a recognized right to material support.
Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.THE THREAD
If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.The same Greek noun ἐξουσία (exousia, right or authority) appears here as “power.” In 9:6 the right is framed as permission to stop working; here its deliberate non-use separates possessing a right from choosing to exercise it.
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