What Does 1 Timothy 5:22 Mean?
Do not place your hands on anyone in haste, nor share in the shortcomings of others. Keep yourself clean.
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
Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.THE KEY
The verse links placing a hand on someone with sharing another’s wrongdoing: what you help make common reaches into your own conduct.
THE MEANING
When you place someone in a position of trust, haste can bind your judgment to what follows. Sharing another person’s wrongdoing brings it into your own sphere; your integrity is something you keep clear of that shared wrong.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You can place someone in responsibility or join their wrongdoing and remain entirely untouched by it.
THE ROOT
κοινωνεῖ
koinōnei
GROWS FROM
κοινός
koinos
Common, shared, held in common.
“partaker” in this verse is koinōnei. The Greek carries the sense of sharing in what becomes common, more than simply receiving a portion. Another person’s wrongdoing enters your sphere through participation: you become a sharer in what you join.
ALSO GROWS
koinōnia: Sharing in common; fellowship.
κοινωνία
It shows that participation creates a shared bond, which clarifies the force of being a “partaker.”
koinōnos: Partner; sharer.
κοινωνός
A participant is a partner in what is shared, not merely a bystander near it.
ἐπιτίθει
epitithei
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
Put, place, set.
“place your hands” in this verse is epitithei. The verb for laying hands is built on the idea of putting or placing. The verse’s warning gives that gesture consequence: placing someone can involve your judgment in what follows.
ALSO GROWS
tithēmi: Put, place, set.
τίθημι
The base verb makes the action concrete: hands are placed, and someone is set into a new relation.
epithesis: Laying on; imposition.
ἐπίθεσις
This related word names the laying-on action itself, showing that the hands signify more than casual contact.
THE PATTERN
Participation turns another’s wrongdoing into shared ground.
You shall not go after the crowd to do harm. Nor shall you answer in a dispute, turning aside after the crowd, to bend judgment.Flourishing is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of those who miss the mark, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.And share nothing in common with the barren works of darkness, but rather expose them.THE THREAD
For the one who bids him rejoice shares in common with his evil works.The Greek word translated “partaker” shares the κοινων root with the word in 1 Timothy. It makes the connection explicit: joining another’s deeds places them in a shared sphere.
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