1 Corinthians 3 · Verse 6

1 Corinthians 3:6

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1 Corinthians 3:6, King James Version

1 Corinthians 3:6 in other translations

BSBI planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
WEBI planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.
ASVI planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
YLTI planted, Apollos watered, but God was giving growth;
DARBYI have planted; Apollos watered; but God has given the increase.
BBEI did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but God gave the increase.
WebsterI have planted, Apollos watered: but God hath given the increase.

What does 1 Corinthians 3:6 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
6. I ... planted, Apollos watered--(Ac 18:1; 19:1). Apollos at his own desire (Ac 18:27) was sent by the brethren to Corinth, and there followed up the work which Paul had begun. God gave the increase--that is, the growth (1Co 3:10; Ac 18:27). "Believed through grace." Though ministers are nothing, and God all in all, yet God works by instruments, and promises the Holy Spirit in the faithful use of means. This is the dispensation of the Spirit, and ours is the ministry of the Spirit.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Barnes' Notes
Verse 6. I have planted. The apostle here compares the establishment of the church at Corinth to the planting of a vine, a tree, or of grain. The figure is taken from agriculture, and the meaning is obvious. Paul established the church. He was the first preacher in Corinth; and if any distinction was due to any one, it was rather to him than to the teachers who had laboured there subsequently; but he regarded himself as worthy of no such honour as to be the head of a party, for it was not himself, but God who had given the increase.

Apollos watered. This figure is taken from the practice of watering a tender plant, or of watering a garden or field. This was necessary in a special manner in eastern countries. Their fields became parched and dry from their long droughts, and it was necessary to irrigate them by artificial means. The sense here is, that Paul had laboured in establishing the church at Corinth; but that subsequently Apollos had laboured to increase it, and to build it up. It is certain that Apollos did not go to Corinth until after Paul had left it. See Acts 18:18,27.

God gave the increase. God caused the seed sown to take root and spring up; and God blessed the irrigation of the tender plants as they sprung up, and caused them to grow. This idea is still taken from the husbandman. It would be vain for the farmer to sow his seed unless God should give it life. There is no life in the seed, nor is there any inherent power in the earth to make it grow. God only, the giver of all life, can quicken the germ in the seed, and make it live. So it would be in vain for the farmer to water his plant unless God should bless it. There is no living principle in the water; no inherent power in the rains of heaven to make the plant grow. It is adapted, indeed, to this, and the seed would not germinate if it was not planted, nor grow if it was not watered; but the life is still from God. He arranged these means, and he gives life to the tender blade, and sustains it. And so it is with the word of life. It has no inherent power to produce effect by itself. The power is not in the naked word, nor in him that plants, nor in him that waters, nor in the heart where it is sown, but in God. But there is a fitness of the means to the end. The word is adapted to save the soul. The seed must be sown, or it will not germinate. The truth must be sown in the heart, and the heart must be prepared for it--as the earth must be ploughed and made mellow, or it will not spring up. It must be cultivated with assiduous care, or it will produce nothing. But still it is all of God mss much so as the yellow harvest of the field, after all the toils of the husbandman, is of God. And as the farmer who has just views, will take no praise to himself because his corn and his vine start up and grow after all his care, but will ascribe all to God's unceasing, beneficent agency; so will the minister of religion, and so will every Christian, after all their care, ascribe all to God.

(e) "God gave the increase" 1Cor 15:10

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 6 I have planted - I first sowed the seed of the Gospel at Corinth, and in the region of Achaia. Apollos watered - Apollos came after me, and, by his preachings and exhortations, watered the seed which I had sowed; but God gave the increase. The seed has taken root, has sprung up, and borne much fruit; but this was by the especial blessing of God. As in the natural so in the spiritual world; it is by the especial blessing of God that the grain which is sown in the ground brings forth thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold: it is neither the sower nor the waterer that produces this strange and inexplicable multiplication; it is God alone. So it is by the particular agency of the Spirit of God that even good seed, sown in good ground, the purest doctrine conveyed to the honest heart, produces the salvation of the soul.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:5-9

The ministers about whom the Corinthians contended, were only instruments used by God. We should not put ministers into the place of God. He that planteth and he that watereth are one, employed by one Master, trusted with the same revelation, busied in one work, and engaged in one design. They have their different gifts from one and the same Spirit, for the very same purposes; and should carry on the same design…

Read the full comment on 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 →

1 Corinthians 3:6 in the original Greek

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

ἐγὼegōI myselfG1473
ἐφύτευσα,ephuteusaplanted,G5452
ἈπολλῶςApollōsApollosG625
ἐπότισεν,epotisenwatered,G4222
ἀλλ᾽all᾽butG235
ὁho<the>G3588
θεὸςtheosGodG2316
ηὔξανεν·ēuxanenwas [it] growing;G837

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for 1 Corinthians 3:6

  • 1 Corinthians 3:9-10

    For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

  • Proverbs 11:25

    The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

  • 2 Corinthians 10:14-15

    For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,

  • Acts 18:4-11

    And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. …

  • 1 Corinthians 9:1

    Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?

  • 1 Corinthians 1:30

    But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

  • Isaiah 55:10-11

    For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

  • Acts 19:1

    And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

  • 2 Corinthians 3:2-5

    Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

  • 1 Corinthians 4:14-15

    I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

  • 1 Corinthians 9:7-11

    Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. …

  • Acts 16:14

    And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
I.
9,10; 4:14,15; 9:1,7-11; 15:1-11; Ac 18:4-11; 2Co 10:14,15
Apollos.
Pr 11:25; Ac 18:24,26,27; 19:1
God.
1:30; 15:10; Ps 62:9,11; 92:13-15; 127:1; Isa 55:10,11; 61:11
Ac 11:18; 14:27; 16:14; 21:19; Ro 15:18; 2Co 3:2-5; 1Th 1:5

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • 1 Corinthians 3:5

    Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

  • 1 Corinthians 3:6

    I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

  • 1 Corinthians 3:7

    So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

Read all of 1 Corinthians 3

1 Corinthians 3:6 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Yo planté, Apolos regó: mas Dios ha dado el crecimiento.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Moi, j’ai planté, Apollos a arrosé; mais Dieu a donné l’accroissement.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Ich habe gepflanzt, Apollos hat begossen, Gott aber hat das Wachstum gegeben.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Ego plantavi, Apollo rigavit: sed Deus incrementum dedit.