What Does 2 Corinthians 12:20 Mean?
For I fear lest, when I come, I will not find you such as I wish, and I will be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be strife, burnings, rages, rivalries, speakings against, whisperings, puffings, upheavals.
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
For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:THE KEY
What looks like a list of separate failings is one social breakdown: rivalry and anger spill into speech against others, inflated selves, and shared disorder.
THE MEANING
A meeting can expose a distance already forming: neither side finds the other as hoped, because rivalry and anger have spread through the relationship. Speech against others, whispering, inflated self-importance, and unrest reveal the fracture becoming communal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that envy and anger stay private: here they appear alongside rivalry, speech against others, self-inflation, and communal upheaval.
THE ROOT
φυσιώσεις
physiōseis
GROWS FROM
φυσιοόω (physioō), from φύω (phyō)
To puff up or inflate; the word family also carries the sense of growing.
“puffings” in this verse is physiōseis. “Swellings” names more than visible turmoil: it is the inflation of self-importance. The same verb family appears as “puffed up” in 1 Corinthians 4:6, where that inflation sets one person against another.
ALSO GROWS
physioomai: Become puffed up; grow conceited.
φυσιοῦμαι
This verb is the action gathered into the noun “swellings.”
physis: Nature; constitution.
φύσις
This related word brings the image of growth into view: here the self swells beyond its proper measure.
καταλαλιαί
katalaliai
GROWS FROM
λαλ- (λαλέω, laleō)
To speak or utter; in this compound, speech is directed against someone.
“speakings against” in this verse is katalaliai. English “backbitings” emphasizes the attack, while the Greek word makes its material plain: speech turned against another. The fracture moves through what is said.
ALSO GROWS
lalia: Speech; utterance.
λαλιά
This is the speech at the center of the word family.
katalaleō: Speak against; slander.
καταλαλέω
The compound shows speech taking an adversarial direction.
ζῆλος
zēlos
GROWS FROM
ζέω
zeō
To boil; to be hot.
“burnings” in this verse is zēlos. This word family can name ardent zeal as well as jealousy; here the heat has become rivalry. The nearby word “wraths” also carries the sense of anger and heat, though it comes from a different Greek root.
ALSO GROWS
zeō: Boil; be hot.
ζέω
This verb gives the word family its image of heat.
zēloō: Be zealous or jealous.
ζηλόω
This related verb carries the family’s range from ardor to envy.
THE PATTERN
Communal disorder grows as rivalry and hostility travel through speech and deepen divisions.
The words of his mouth are smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are opened swords.Without wood the fire goes out; without a whisperer the strife lies down.For where boiling and strife are, there is no standing still and every base deed.THE THREAD
And these things, brothers, I have reshaped onto myself and Apollos for your sake, so that in us you might learn not to go beyond what is written, and that none of you be inflated for one against another.“Puffed up” here uses the same Greek word family as “swellings” in 2 Corinthians 12:20. In both verses, self-inflation turns people against one another and feeds division.
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