What Does 1 Thessalonians 5:20 Mean in the King James?

Despise not prophesyings.

1 Thessalonians 5:20 · 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.

THE KEY

Despising prophecy is making it nothing before discernment has even begun.

THE MEANING

Prophetic speech is not disposable; it reaches you as an utterance with a claim worth discerning. The verse does not make every utterance unquestionable, the next line places testing beside openness.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that prophetic speech has no claim worth weighing is undone here.

THE ROOT

ἐξουθενεῖτε

exoutheneite

GROWS FROM

οὐδέν

ouden

nothing; no thing

The verb carries the sense of treating something as nothing, so “despise” here is more than dislike: it is the act of stripping prophetic speech of any worth. The verse names that dismissal before the following line calls for discernment.

ALSO GROWS

oudeis: no one; nobody

οὐδείς

This related form turns “nothing” toward a person counted as nobody, echoing the way contempt reduces what it dismisses.

ouden: nothing; no thing

οὐδέν

This is the “nothing” at the heart of the verb: prophecy is not to be reduced to no thing.

προφητείας

prophēteias

GROWS FROM

φημί

phēmi

to say; to speak

“prophesyings” in this verse is prophēteias. The word points to prophetic utterances, not only predictions about the future. What English can make sound like a category of religious activity is, at its root, speech, and this verse says that speech is not to be dismissed as nothing.

ALSO GROWS

prophētēs: prophet; one who speaks prophetically

προφήτης

The related word names the speaker, showing that the verse concerns both the utterance and the person who voices it.

prophēteuō: to prophesy; to speak prophetically

προφητεύω

This verb names the act of speaking that produces the “prophesyings” the verse says not to despise.

THE PATTERN

Prophetic claims are neither made weightless nor exempted from being tested.

When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 18:22 · KJVA claim to speak for the LORD is tested by whether the word comes to pass, so the speaker’s title alone does not settle its truth.

Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.

1 Corinthians 14:29 · KJVProphetic speech is heard while others weigh what is said; it is neither discarded nor placed beyond discernment.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

1 John 4:1 · KJVThe verse calls for testing prophetic claims because false prophets also speak.

THE THREAD

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 · KJV

The next verse supplies the companion to “Despise not”: “Prove all things” keeps discernment active, and “hold fast that which is good” preserves what withstands it. Together, the lines leave prophecy heard without making it unquestionable.

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