What Does 2 Corinthians 5:19 Mean?
That God was in the Anointed One, exchanging the world back to himself, not counting their falls against them, and setting in us the word of exchange.
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
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.THE KEY
The Greek echoes one word-family twice: trespasses are not reckoned against the world, and the word of reconciliation is placed among us.
THE MEANING
God is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself; trespasses are not charged against it. The message entrusted among us announces restored relation, where wrong does not remain the defining account between God and the world.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that every wrong must remain charged against a person for relationship with God to be real.
THE ROOT
καταλλαγή
katallagē
GROWS FROM
ἀλλάσσω
allassō
To change, alter, or exchange; in this word family, to bring about a change in relation.
“the word of exchange” in this verse is katallagē. The Greek word for reconciliation belongs to the ἀλλάσσω family, associated with change and exchange. Here the change is relational: the world is reconciled to God while its trespasses are not charged against it.
ALSO GROWS
allassō: To change, alter, or exchange.
ἀλλάσσω
This base verb gives the reconciliation family its shade of changed relation.
katallassō: To reconcile, restore a relationship.
καταλλάσσω
This is the action in the verse: God brings the world into relation with himself.
λογιζόμενος
logizomenos
GROWS FROM
λόγος
logos
Word, account, or reason; the related Greek word family includes the act of reckoning.
“the word of exchange” in this verse is logizomenos. The Greek places λογιζόμενος and λόγον in the same word family: reckoning and word echo each other in one sentence. English separates the account from the message, while the verse entrusts a message that says trespasses are not being counted against the world.
ALSO GROWS
logizomai: To reckon, calculate, or consider.
λογίζομαι
This is the verb translated “imputing”; here it names the account God does not charge to the world.
logos: Word, statement, or account.
λόγος
This is the “word” of reconciliation placed among us, echoing the word-family of reckoning.
logismos: A calculation or reckoning.
λογισμός
This related noun makes the accounting sense of “imputing” visible.
παραπτώματα
paraptōmata
GROWS FROM
πίπτω
piptō
To fall; with παρά (para), beside or aside, the word pictures a fall or step aside.
“falls” in this verse is paraptōmata. παράπτωμα carries the image of a fall or step aside. The verse concerns actual missteps, but refuses to make them the standing charge against the world.
ALSO GROWS
parapiptō: To fall aside or away.
παραπίπτω
The verb preserves the image beneath the English “trespass.”
paraptōma: A lapse, false step, or trespass.
παράπτωμα
This is the singular form of the word used here for the wrongs not charged against the world.
THE PATTERN
Reconciliation restores relationship without keeping wrongdoing as the defining account.
Flourishing is a person to whom the LORD does not count crookedness, and in whose breath there is no deceit.Flourishing is the one whose falling short the LORD will never count.And, having made wholeness through the blood of his cross, through him to bring all things back to himself, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.THE THREAD
Flourishing is the one whose falling short the LORD will never count.The Greek verb translated “impute” belongs to the same word family as the reckoning term in this verse. Romans makes that shared image explicit: sin is not reckoned, and reconciliation is the message entrusted among us.
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