What Does 1 Timothy 1:15 Mean?
This is a firm word, and worthy of every welcoming hand, that Jesus the Anointed One came into the world to deliver those missing the mark; of whom I am the first.
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
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.THE KEY
The one who calls himself foremost among those who miss the mark becomes the evidence that deliverance reaches the very people it names.
THE MEANING
Christ Jesus comes into the world to deliver those who miss the mark; the speaker names himself foremost among them. The verse holds the failure in full view while locating deliverance right there, with the one who comes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that deliverance is only for people who have already made themselves worthy: its speaker identifies himself as foremost among those who miss.
THE ROOT
σῶσαι
sōsai
GROWS FROM
σῴζ
to rescue or deliver; to bring safely through danger
“to save” in this verse is sōsai. The Greek verb here belongs to a family of words for rescue: deliverance is movement through and out of danger. The verse places that movement among those who miss the mark, not beyond their reach.
ALSO GROWS
sōzō: rescue, deliver
σῴζω
This is the verb’s present form and shares the root σῴζ; it makes clear that the verse’s saving is an act of rescue.
diasōzō: bring safely through
διασῴζω
The compound keeps the same root and gives the sense of being carried through danger to safety.
sōzomai: be rescued, be delivered
σῴζομαι
This form shares the root and shows the person receiving the rescue named in the verse.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
to deliver, bring out from narrowness into spaciousness
The name Jesus carries the name-nature of Yeshua, from יָשַׁע (yāšaʿ), to deliver. The one who comes is named for deliverance itself: the verse’s movement runs from missing toward being brought out.
ALSO GROWS
yāšaʿ: deliver, bring out
יָשַׁע
This verb shares the root ישע and names the deliverance carried in the name Yeshua.
yəšūʿāh: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun shares the root and names the deliverance Jesus’ coming brings.
môšîaʿ: deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This word shares the root and names the one who brings people out.
ἁμαρτωλούς
hamartōlous
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ
missing; failing to hit a mark
“those missing the mark” in this verse is hamartōlous. The root puts the emphasis on missing, rather than making it a person’s final nature. The speaker says he himself stands foremost among those who miss, and the sentence immediately places that missing within reach of deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: miss, miss the mark
ἁμαρτάνω
This verb shares the root ἁμαρτ and makes the action beneath the verse’s word for sinners visible.
hamartia: missing, a miss of the mark
ἁμαρτία
This noun shares the root and shows the same idea expressed as a condition or act of missing.
hamartēma: a miss, an act of missing
ἁμάρτημα
This noun shares the root and keeps the focus on the particular miss rather than a fixed identity.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance meets people in their lostness and brings them out.
He brings them out of darkness and the valley of deepest darkness, and tears their bonds apart.To open blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and those who settle in darkness out of the prison house.For the Son of Man has come to seek and to deliver that which had lost its way.THE THREAD
For the Son of Man has come to seek and to deliver that which had lost its way.Luke uses the same Greek infinitive, σῶσαι (sōsai), for save. The lost are the ones Jesus seeks, just as the missing in this verse are the ones he comes to deliver.
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