What Does 1 Corinthians 16:23 Mean?
The favor of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, be with you.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.THE KEY
The “grace” named here is χάρις (charis): favor that carries the sense of generosity given freely.
THE MEANING
The favor of the Lord Jesus Christ is spoken over you now as being with you. The Greek word χάρις (charis) also belongs to a family of words for freely granting and for a gift, so this blessing carries the sense of generosity shared.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that divine favor is only distant approval: the verse speaks of it as being with you.
THE ROOT
χάρις
charis
GROWS FROM
χαρ
The χαρ- (char-) stem carries favor and pleasing regard; its derivatives extend that favor into granting and gift.
The related verb χαρίζομαι (charizomai) means to grant freely, while χάρισμα (charisma) means a gift. So the blessing pictures favor not only as regard, but as generosity given into your presence.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: to grant freely, bestow as a favor
χαρίζομαι
This verb turns favor into an act of giving, showing the generosity carried in the blessing.
charisma: a gift, a freely given endowment
χάρισμα
This related noun names what favor gives; it makes the blessing feel like a gift shared with you.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
To deliver or bring into safety; in this lens, to move from constriction toward spaciousness.
The name Jesus carries the nature of deliverance. Joined to favor in this verse, it holds generosity together with the one whose name embodies bringing out of constriction.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: to deliver, bring to safety
יָשַׁע
The verb names the delivering nature carried in the name Yeshua.
yeshuah: deliverance, rescue
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the release into safety that the name Jesus carries.
THE PATTERN
Divine favor appears as a presence that accompanies and sustains, not merely as approval from a distance.
And the LORD said to Moses, I will do this word also that you have spoken, for you have found favor in my eyes, and I have known you by name.For you, LORD, bless the aligned one; with favor you encircle him as with a shield.And he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for strength is carried to its end in weakness." Most gladly, then, I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Anointed One may pitch its tent over me.THE THREAD
And he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for strength is carried to its end in weakness." Most gladly, then, I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Anointed One may pitch its tent over me.This verse uses the same Greek word, χάρις (charis), the favor wished to be with you here. In 2 Corinthians, that favor is sufficient in weakness, revealing the blessing as a sustaining presence.
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