What Does 2 Corinthians 13:1 Mean?
This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand.
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 the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.THE KEY
“Established” means made to stand: here, a spoken matter gains its footing through witnesses, not through one mouth alone.
THE MEANING
A statement takes its place on solid ground when more than one witness supports it. The speaker’s third coming sits beside that standard: presence alone does not make a word stand beyond scrutiny.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
One voice’s confidence or authority, by itself, makes its claim true.
THE ROOT
σταθήσεται
stathēsetai
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand, set in place, or take a position.
The Greek verb means “will stand.” The spoken matter is pictured as gaining footing and remaining upright through corroboration, rather than merely being asserted.
ALSO GROWS
stasis: A standing or position.
στάσις
It makes the image of a word taking its place visible.
anastasis: A rising or standing up; resurrection.
ἀνάστασις
This related word carries the same standing image into rising up.
μαρτύρων
martyrōn
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
To witness or testify.
This word family connects the person who witnesses with the testimony given and the act of testifying. The verse’s witnesses are not just names on a list; their shared testimony is what gives the spoken matter a public footing.
ALSO GROWS
martyria: Testimony or witness.
μαρτυρία
It names the testimony that the witnesses supply.
martyreō: To bear witness or testify.
μαρτυρέω
It shows witnessing as an act, not merely a title.
THE PATTERN
A claim gains public footing through corroborating witnesses.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.But if he does not hear you, take along with you one or two more, so that upon the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand.And in your instruction it stands written, that the witness of two people is true.THE THREAD
But if he does not hear you, take along with you one or two more, so that upon the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand.Matthew uses the same Greek word family for “witnesses” and the same verb for “be established.” Read beside it, this verse’s “third time” sits within a recurring pattern: the word is tested and made to stand through corroborating testimony.
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