What Does 2 Corinthians 13:3 Mean?
Since you seek a testing of the Anointed One speaking in me, who toward you is not weak, but is strong in you.
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
Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.THE KEY
The proof they seek is the power of the anointed one already at work among them.
THE MEANING
When you ask whether the anointed one speaks through a voice, this verse places the evidence in the power active among those the voice reaches. The speaker may appear weak, yet the power present in you is not weak.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a weak-seeming messenger means the anointed one’s voice is powerless. The verse locates that power among those the voice reaches.
THE ROOT
δυνατεῖ
dynatei
GROWS FROM
δυνα-/δυναμ- (dyna-/dynam- stem)
Be able; possess power to act.
“is strong” in this verse is dynatei. The Greek word belongs to the same word family as δύναμις, power, and δύναμαι, to be able. “Mighty” here names an active capacity at work in the people addressed, not merely a quality attributed from a distance.
ALSO GROWS
dynamis: Power, capacity
δύναμις
It names the power that the verse says is present among those addressed.
dynamai: To be able, to have power
δύναμαι
It shows the capacity implied by “mighty” as something able to act.
δοκιμήν
dokimēn
GROWS FROM
δοκιμ-
dokim-
Testing that establishes what is genuine or approved.
“a testing” in this verse is dokimēn. The word for “proof” carries the sense of something tested and found genuine. The verse connects the sought proof with power already active among the people, giving the claim a lived measure.
ALSO GROWS
dokimazō: Test, examine, approve
δοκιμάζω
It shows that proof involves testing what is genuine.
dokimos: Approved, proven
δόκιμος
It describes what has stood the test, clarifying the kind of proof being sought.
ἀσθενεῖ
asthenei
GROWS FROM
ἀσθεν-
asthen-
Lacking strength; weak.
“is not weak” in this verse is asthenei. This word belongs to the same family as “weakness” in the next verse, where weakness stands beside the power of God. The passage holds both together instead of treating weakness as proof that power is absent.
ALSO GROWS
astheneia: Weakness, infirmity
ἀσθένεια
It names the condition paired with power in the following verse.
asthenēs: Weak, without strength
ἀσθενής
It shows the same root describing a person or thing as weak.
THE PATTERN
God’s power is recognized by what it accomplishes within people, even where human strength is absent.
Then he answered and said to me, This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by army, nor by strength, but by my breath, says the LORD of hosts.And he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for strength is carried to its end in weakness." Most gladly, then, I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Anointed One may pitch its tent over me.Now to him who is strong enough to do beyond all that we ask or perceive, overflowing past measure, according to the strength that works in us.THE THREAD
For though he was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives by the strength of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the strength of God toward you.The next verse repeats the same Greek word families for weakness and power. It opens the contrast further: the crucified one lives by God’s power, so weakness does not mean that power is absent.
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