What Does 2 John 1:13 Mean?
The children of your chosen sister embrace you. Amen.
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
The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen.THE KEY
The verse turns a greeting into evidence of kinship: welcome reaches you through your sister’s children.
THE MEANING
You are greeted as family: your sister’s children address you with welcome. Belonging here takes the shape of real people speaking to you, and “Amen” affirms that bond.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that kinship is only a title with no lived exchange dissolves: your sister’s children actively greet you.
THE ROOT
ἀδελφῆς
adelphēs
GROWS FROM
ἀδελφ-
adelph-
Sibling or kin; the word is traditionally understood as “of the same womb.”
“sister” in this verse is adelphēs. This word belongs to family language, not merely a label for association. Beside the reference to her children, it makes the greeting feel rooted in kinship.
ALSO GROWS
adelphos: brother
ἀδελφός
The masculine sibling term shares the same family word, linking sister and brother through kinship.
adelphotēs: brotherhood; sibling community
ἀδελφότης
The same word family can name a community as siblings, echoing the belonging carried by this greeting.
τέκνα
tekna
GROWS FROM
τίκτω
tiktō
To bear or bring forth.
“Children” belongs to the word family of bringing forth, so the greeters are presented through a living family relation. Alongside “sister,” this makes the welcome personal rather than anonymous.
ALSO GROWS
teknon: child; offspring
τέκνον
This singular form names the child whose plural form describes the greeters in the verse.
tiktō: to bear; to give birth
τίκτω
The verb names the bringing forth behind the family word, keeping origin and kinship close to the image of these children.
ἀσπάζεται
aspazetai
GROWS FROM
ἀσπάζομαι
aspazomai
To greet, welcome, or receive warmly.
The verb carries the sense of welcoming or receiving, and can also describe an embrace. The greeting is more than a polite sign-off: it expresses personal reception.
ALSO GROWS
aspazomai: to greet; to welcome
ἀσπάζομαι
This is the verb’s dictionary form, making the welcome in the verse part of a wider Greek word family.
aspasmos: greeting; salutation
ἀσπασμός
The related noun names the greeting itself, showing how the action becomes a concrete expression of welcome.
THE PATTERN
Greeting makes shared belonging tangible by carrying welcome from one person or community to another.
And when Laban heard the report of Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him, and clasped him, and kissed him, and brought him into his house. And Jacob recounted to Laban all these words.Embrace one another with a set-apart kiss. The assemblies of the anointed one embrace you.All the brothers embrace you. Embrace one another with a set-apart kiss.THE THREAD
The assembly in Babylon, chosen together with you, embraces you, and so does Mark, my son.The same Greek verb ἀσπάζομαι (aspazomai, greet or welcome) appears in both verses. Here the greeting comes from a sister’s children; there it comes through an assembly and Marcus, named as a son. In both, welcome carries the language of family.
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