What Does 2 Corinthians 2:5 Mean?
But if anyone has caused pain, he has not pained me, but in part, so that I would not lay my weight upon all of 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
But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.THE KEY
The grief is real, but its weight is partial; the verse does not lay all of it on everyone.
THE MEANING
Grief touches you, but only in part. The verse distinguishes being affected by pain from bearing its full weight; the hurt is real without becoming everyone’s entire burden.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that when someone is hurt, everyone must carry the full weight of that hurt.
THE ROOT
ἐπιβαρέω
epibareō
GROWS FROM
βαρ-
The three-letter Greek root βαρ- (bar-) carries the sense of weight or heaviness; ἐπιβαρέω means to weigh upon or burden.
“lay my weight upon” in this verse is epibareō. “Overcharge” pictures weight being laid upon someone. The same root appears in words for a burden and for being weighed down, revealing that the verse speaks not only of grief but of how much of its weight is placed on the whole group.
ALSO GROWS
baros: Burden, weight
βάρος
This word names the weight that the speaker is careful not to lay on everyone in full.
bareō: To weigh down
βαρέω
This verb makes the image physical: grief can be present without everyone being weighed down by all of it.
THE PATTERN
Grief can be acknowledged as real while its weight is shared or limited instead of assigned in full to everyone.
The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken, and delivers those crushed in breath.Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.The word translated “overcharge” comes from the Greek weight-root βαρ-, also found in βάρος, “burden” or “weight.” This verse names the shared carrying of that same weight: grief can be acknowledged without making one person bear it all.
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