What Does 1 John 2:14 Mean?
I have written to you, fathers, because you have perceived him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
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
I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.THE KEY
The verse sets knowing the one from the beginning alongside a word that remains within you and a victory already accomplished.
THE MEANING
The verse addresses you through two portraits: knowing the one from the beginning, and being strong as the word of God remains within you. It names your overcoming of the wicked one as complete, with its result still standing now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the wicked one still has the final claim over you: the verse says you have overcome him.
THE ROOT
νενικήκατε
nenikēkate
GROWS FROM
νικάω
nikaō
To conquer, win, or prevail.
“overcome” in this verse is nenikēkate. The verb’s perfect form presents the overcoming as completed, with its result still in effect. Its placement beside the word that remains within you makes victory and continuing indwelling part of the same description.
ALSO GROWS
nikē: Victory
νίκη
The same word family names the result of winning, clarifying that the verse speaks of an accomplished victory.
nikētēs: Conqueror, victor
νικητής
The same family can name the one who wins; here the readers themselves are named as having overcome.
μένει
menei
GROWS FROM
μένω
menō
To remain, stay, or continue.
“remains” in this verse is menei. The verb pictures the word’s presence as continued staying inside you, not a momentary arrival. Its noun family includes μονή (monē, dwelling place), giving “abideth” the texture of an inner residence.
ALSO GROWS
monē: Dwelling place, place to stay
μονή
This branch makes the word’s abiding feel like an ongoing residence within you.
epimenō: Continue, persist
ἐπιμένω
The compound keeps the sense of staying, emphasizing that what remains within you continues there.
ἐγνώκατε
egnōkate
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
To know, recognize, or perceive through experience.
“perceived” in this verse is egnōkate. The verb’s perfect form presents the fathers’ knowing as established and continuing. This root carries knowing by encounter, not mere information; the verse pairs that settled knowing with strength and the word remaining within.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: Knowledge, knowing
γνῶσις
The related noun names knowing as something held, while the verse presents it as a settled recognition of the one from the beginning.
epiginōskō: Recognize, come to know
ἐπιγινώσκω
This compound keeps the sense of recognition, pointing to knowing someone rather than merely possessing facts about them.
THE PATTERN
What is held within or remains with the reader is joined to strength in the face of opposition.
I store your word in my heart, so that I do not miss the mark against you.If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you.But in all these things we are more than overcomers through him who loved us.THE THREAD
And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of their witness, and they did not love their living souls, even unto death.Both verses use νικάω (nikaō, overcome), and both name λόγος (logos, word). Here the word remains within you; Revelation joins the word to testimony, showing inner word and spoken witness alongside the same overcoming.
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