What Does 1 Timothy 6:13 Mean?
I charge you before the face of God, who gives living birth to all things, and before Jesus, the Anointed One, who before Pontius Pilate bore witness to the good word.
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 give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;THE KEY
The confession before Pilate is held in the sight of the One who gives life to all.
THE MEANING
Your life stands before the God who gives life to all. Jesus’ confession before Pilate remains a present witness, placing the charge under divine authority even when human power is in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The authority judging your words is the source and final keeper of your life.
THE ROOT
ὁμολογίαν
homologian
GROWS FROM
ὁμολογ-
homolog-
ὁμολογία (homología): confession, profession, acknowledgment; its word family joins ὁμός (homos, same) and λέγω (legō, say).
“bore witness to the good word” in this verse is homologian. “Confession” can sound like a private admission; this word also carries the sense of profession or acknowledgment. Beside “witnessed,” it presents Jesus’ words as a public declaration made in the presence of power.
ALSO GROWS
homologeō: confess, profess, acknowledge
ὁμολογέω
This verb names the act of making the acknowledgment that the noun “confession” describes.
homología: confession, profession, acknowledgment
ὁμολογία
The noun can describe a spoken profession, making the confession something publicly held and heard.
ἐμαρτύρησεν
emartyrēsen
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
μαρτυρέω (martyreō): bear witness, testify.
“bore witness to the good word” in this verse is emartyrēsen. “Witnessed” belongs to the family of “witness” and “testimony”: it describes bearing public evidence, not only an inward conviction. Jesus’ acknowledgment is placed before Pilate, where human authority can hear it.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness
μάρτυς
The witness is the one who bears the testimony, linking Jesus’ words to public attestation.
martyria: testimony, witness
μαρτυρία
This branch names the testimony itself, illuminating the declaration as something that can be heard and remembered.
ζωογονοῦντι
zōogonounti
GROWS FROM
ζωογον-
zōogon-
ζωογονέω (zōogoneō): give life or preserve alive; a compound of ζωή (zōē, life) and γόνος (gonos, birth, offspring).
“gives living birth to” in this verse is zōogonounti. The phrase extends life-giving to “all things,” placing every life and every human authority within that source. Life is received and sustained; it does not originate in the ruler before whom a confession is spoken.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: life
ζωή
This is the life element in the compound, making the giver’s action explicitly about life.
zōopoieō: make alive, give life
ζωοποιέω
This related life-giving verb echoes the verse’s picture of life as something actively given.
zōon: living creature
ζῷον
This word shares the life-bearing element and echoes the scope of “all things.”
THE PATTERN
Life belongs to God, and testimony remains answerable to God when human power is present.
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me. I kill, and I make alive; I shatter, and I mend; and there is none who can snatch away from my hand.Pilate said to him, So you are a king, then? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is from the truth hears my voice.Then Peter and the other sent ones answered and said, We must obey God rather than humankind.THE THREAD
Wrestle the good contest of trust, take hold of the life of the ages, to which you were also called, and have spoken the good confession before many witnesses.Verse 12 uses ὁμολογέω (homologeō, profess or acknowledge) behind “professed” and ὁμολογία (homología, profession or confession) in “profession,” the same word family behind “confession” here. It also uses the μαρτυρ- (martyr-, witness/testimony) family in “many witnesses,” linking Timothy’s public profession to Jesus’ witnessed confession before Pilate.
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