What Does 1 Timothy 5:21 Mean?
I solemnly bear witness before God, and the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, and the chosen messengers, that you guard these things without a verdict set beforehand, doing nothing from a lean toward one side.
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 charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.THE KEY
Partiality begins as a lean: judgment can already be tilted before it shows in what you do.
THE MEANING
You stand under a solemn charge before God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels. The charge reaches both the verdict formed in advance and the actions that lean toward one person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that partiality begins only when bias becomes visible: it names the prior verdict that can already bend what follows.
THE ROOT
πρόσκλισις
prosklisis
GROWS FROM
κλίνω
klinō
to bend, incline, or lean
“lean toward one side” in this verse is prosklisis. The Greek word pictures a leaning toward someone. Partiality is more than a stated preference: judgment has shifted its weight toward one person.
ALSO GROWS
prosklinō: to lean toward, incline oneself to
προσκλίνω
This compound makes the verse’s image explicit: partiality is a directional lean toward someone.
klinē: bed, couch; a place to recline
κλίνη
This related word preserves the physical sense of reclining; the abstract bias still carries an image of weight shifting to one side.
πρόκριμα
prokrima
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
to separate, decide, or judge
“verdict set beforehand” in this verse is prokrima. This word names a judgment made beforehand. Beside the next clause’s image of leaning toward someone, it exposes two layers: the verdict can tilt before any action is taken.
ALSO GROWS
prokrinō: to judge beforehand, prefer
προκρίνω
The prefix carries the sense of deciding in advance, which is precisely what the verse excludes.
krima: a decision, judgment, or verdict
κρίμα
This branch shows the judgment root carried into the verdict itself, before it shapes conduct.
THE PATTERN
Fair judgment is bent both by verdicts reached in advance and by favor toward a person’s status or face.
You shall not recognize faces in judgment; hear and respond to the small as well as the great; do not shrink from the face of man; for the judgment is God's; and the word that is too hard for you, draw it near to me, and I will hear and respond to it.You shall do no crookedness in judgment; you shall not lift up the face of the bowed down, nor adorn the face of the great; but in alignment shall you judge the one beside you.My brothers, do not hold the trust of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Lord of weight, by receiving faces.THE THREAD
Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face.The charge places your judgment before God, and Acts names impartiality as God’s own way. The reader’s judgment stands under the same impartiality the verse attributes to God.
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