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I don't know Greek at all.

1 Cor. 6:11 says this in the SBL Greek New Testament: 11 καὶ ταῦτά τινες ἦτε· ἀλλὰ ἀπελούσασθε, ἀλλὰ ἡγιάσθητε, ἀλλὰ ἐδικαιώθητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν.

Holman translates it this way:

And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

My question is whether ἀλλὰ ἀπελούσασθε, ἀλλὰ ἡγιάσθητε, ἀλλὰ ἐδικαιώθητε ("you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified") is in the singular or plural.

Was Paul using the singular, that individual persons were washed, sanctified, and justified, or the plural, that the entire church at Corinth was washed, sanctified, and justified? The point being, was the church saved en masse?

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  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this can be answered readily with an interlinear and requires no interpretation.
    – Ruminator
    Commented Jun 30, 2018 at 12:46
  • 2
    @Ruminator While it's not a great question because it is so easily answered, it's not outside the bounds of this site IMO.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jul 2, 2018 at 11:34

2 Answers 2

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As someone with six years of Greek classes, the Greek verbs ἀλλὰ ἀπελούσασθε, ἀλλὰ ἡγιάσθητε, ἀλλὰ ἐδικαιώθητε are plural. I checked the textual apparatuses and plural isn't a textual issue. Note the "ye" and "you" in the KJV also signifies plural. "Thou" in the KJV is singular.

the Greek verbs ἀλλὰ ἀπελούσασθε, ἀλλὰ ἡγιάσθητε, ἀλλὰ ἐδικαιώθητε are all aorist, indicative, second person, plural. The first verb is middle voice, the last two are passive. The morphology included with NA27 in Logos Bible Software verified this.

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Just to answer your question, at the end, about the salvation of the church :

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, John 3:36

He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son, II John 9

Clearly, faith in the Son of God and the abiding in the doctrine of Christ are personal matters of individual experience.

Then they that gladly received [the apostolic] word were baptised and the same day were added ... Acts 2:41

Once faith was active, they were individually baptised and added to the number of believers.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine ... and had all things common. Acts 2:44

Then, they became as one.

And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Acts 2:47.

They were saved individually - by the Lord - through individual faith. After his adding them to a company of such believers, they then continued in that salvation by His influences and ministrations within the church.

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