What Does 2 Corinthians 6:2 Mean?
For he says, "In a welcome time I have heard and answered you, and on the day of deliverance I have run to your cry. Behold, now is the welcome time. Behold, now is the day of deliverance."
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 he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)THE KEY
The verse folds welcome and deliverance into the same present moment, naming it twice as now.
THE MEANING
This addresses you in the moment you occupy: it is a time of favor, and it is a day of deliverance. The help spoken of here meets the present, so the repeated “now” locates its promise in your lived moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that deliverance is always deferred dissolves here: the verse names this moment as the day of deliverance.
THE ROOT
σωτηρίας
sōtērias
GROWS FROM
σωζ- / σωτηρ- (sōz- / sōtēr-)
deliver, rescue, bring safely through
The Greek noun σωτηρία (sōtēria, deliverance) names rescue or preservation; the Isaiah line behind the quotation uses יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance). That shared sense makes “the day of salvation” a day of being brought through, and the repeated “now” brings that movement into the present.
ALSO GROWS
sōzō: deliver, rescue, preserve
σῴζω
The verb makes the noun’s meaning concrete: deliverance is the act of being brought through.
sōtēr: deliverer, rescuer
σωτήρ
This related word names the one who brings deliverance, keeping the word family focused on rescue.
εὐπρόσδεκτος
euprosdektos
GROWS FROM
δεχ- (dech-), the δέχομαι (dechomai) word family
receive, accept, welcome
“welcome time” in this verse is euprosdektos. The adjective εὐπρόσδεκτος (euprosdektos, well-received or acceptable) belongs to a word family about receiving and welcoming. The repeated “now” calls this present a favorable opening in which the promised help is at hand.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: receive, accept, welcome
δέχομαι
This is the core verb beneath the idea of an acceptable time.
prosdechomai: receive, welcome
προσδέχομαι
The expanded form carries the same welcoming sense found in the verse’s description of the present.
dektos: acceptable, welcome
δεκτός
This related form appears in the verse’s first “accepted time,” joining the quoted promise to the present declaration.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance meets the present moment as favor and opens distress into a wider place.
Thus says the LORD, In a time of favor I answered you, and in a day of deliverance I helped you. I will guard you, and give you as a covenant for the people, to make the earth stand, to hand down the emptied holdings.From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.Jesus said to him, Go on your way; your full weight leaning has delivered you. At once he looked up again and followed Jesus on the way.THE THREAD
Thus says the LORD, In a time of favor I answered you, and in a day of deliverance I helped you. I will guard you, and give you as a covenant for the people, to make the earth stand, to hand down the emptied holdings.In Isaiah’s Hebrew, יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance) names the promise that the Greek σωτηρία (sōtēria, deliverance) echoes here. The same promise of help on the day of deliverance is stated twice in the present: “now … now.”
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