What Does 1 Corinthians 16:5 Mean?
Now I will come to you when I have passed through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia.
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
Now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia.THE KEY
The same Greek verb-family is translated “come” at the destination and “pass through” on the way there.
THE MEANING
A promised arrival can be held in view while the passage is still underway. The motion toward you and the motion through the place on the way belong to one movement: the route is part of the coming.
THE ROOT
ἔρχομαι
erchomai
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι
erchomai
To come or go; to arrive or move toward a place.
The Greek uses ἐλεύσομαι, a future form of ἔρχομαι, for “I will come,” and διέρχομαι, formed with dia (“through”), for “I pass through.” English gives these motions different words, while Greek holds them in one family: arrival and passage are parts of the same movement.
ALSO GROWS
dierchomai: Pass through, go through
διέρχομαι
Adding dia (“through”) turns the same coming-and-going motion into the route through Macedonia.
eleusomai: I will come
ἐλεύσομαι
This is the future form used for the promised arrival “unto you,” joining the destination to the passage.
eiserchomai: Enter, go in
εἰσέρχομαι
With eis (“into”), the same verb-family describes movement into a place, extending the pattern from route to arrival within.
THE PATTERN
A promised arrival is held together with the passage that leads to it.
And Abram crossed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. The Canaanite was then in the land.And he had to go through Samaria.And when he had passed through those regions, and had urged them with many words, he came into Greece.THE THREAD
And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia to you, and from you to be sent on my way toward Judea.This verse uses the same Greek verb-family for passing through and coming, placing Macedonia along the route between encounters. It opens the present verse into a fuller movement: passage, return, and onward travel belong to one journey.
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