What Does Ephesians 5:7 Mean in the King James?

Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

Ephesians 5:7 · 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

The warning is about sharing a portion, not merely being near people who choose differently.

THE MEANING

Your life is not sealed off from what you join: participation creates a shared portion. This verse names the boundary around joining a way shaped by empty words and disobedience.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that you can share in a way of life without sharing in what it yields.

THE ROOT

συμμέτοχοι

symmetochoi

GROWS FROM

μετέχω

to share in, to have a part in

“partakers” in this verse is symmetochoi. The word carries the sense of sharing together in the same portion. The warning concerns entering into what another way of life holds in common, not mere proximity.

ALSO GROWS

metochos: partner, sharer, partaker

μέτοχος

Hebrews 3:14 uses this word for being a partaker of Christ, showing that participation names a bond and a shared portion.

metechō: share in, partake

μετέχω

In 1 Corinthians 10:21, this verb describes partaking of a table, making the shared portion concrete.

THE PATTERN

What you join becomes a shared participation, and the portion changes with what is joined.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

Psalm 1:1 · KJVThe sequence from walking to standing to sitting shows how shared company can become an inhabited way.

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.

1 Corinthians 10:21 · KJVPartaking is sharing in a table and its portion, making divided participation impossible.

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Ephesians 3:6 · KJVThe same word-family describes sharing the promise in Christ, showing that participation can name a life-giving bond.

THE THREAD

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Ephesians 3:6 · KJV

Ephesians 3:6 uses this same co-participation word for sharing the promise in Christ. The word names a shared portion in both verses, so the focus is what is entered into together.

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