What Does Colossians 1:9 Mean?
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not stop praying for you, and asking that you be filled with the full knowing of his will in all wisdom and breath-born understanding.
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 this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;THE KEY
The prayer is for knowing that fills you, as God’s will comes into view through perception rather than information alone.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks over you as an ongoing prayer: that recognition of God’s will fills you, with wisdom and breath-shaped understanding bringing its parts together. The knowing it names is lived perception, not information held at a distance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that God’s will is only a code you must crack by collecting enough facts; here, knowing is received as a filling that yields understanding.
THE ROOT
ἐπίγνωσις
epignōsis
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
To know or perceive; the word carries the sense of recognition, with the prefix epi- intensifying the knowing.
“full knowing” in this verse is epignōsis. The word is epignōsis, a knowing that recognizes what is present, not simply a store of facts. The prayer asks for this recognition of God’s will to fill you.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: Know, perceive
γινώσκω
This related verb points to knowing through encounter, giving the verse’s knowledge a relational depth.
epiginōskō: Recognize, know fully
ἐπιγινώσκω
This related verb makes the sense of recognition explicit: God’s will becomes something perceived, not merely described.
σύνεσις
synesis
GROWS FROM
συνίημι
syniēmi
To bring together; understanding as perceiving how things fit.
Understanding here carries the image of separate pieces coming together into a whole. It adds discernment to knowledge: you perceive how what you know connects.
ALSO GROWS
syniēmi: Bring together, understand
συνίημι
The verb reveals the gathering-together beneath the English word: understanding sees the relation between things.
synetos: Discerning, intelligent
συνετός
This related adjective describes someone able to grasp how the pieces fit, the capacity the prayer names.
πνευματικός
pneumatikos
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
To breathe or blow; its word family includes πνεῦμα (pneuma), breath, wind, or spirit.
“spiritual” in this verse is pneumatikos. The Greek word points to what belongs to pneuma: breath and Spirit held together in one word family. The understanding sought here is breath-given, not merely clever analysis.
ALSO GROWS
pneuma: Breath, wind, spirit
πνεῦμα
This noun preserves the breath-and-Spirit unity that the English word spiritual can leave less visible.
pneumatikos: Pertaining to breath or Spirit; spiritual
πνευματικός
This is the adjective in the verse, marking the understanding as belonging to pneuma.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are received from God as capacities for perception.
And I have filled him with the breath of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of work.For the LORD gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and discernment.That the God of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, the Father of weight, might give you a breath of wisdom and unveiling in the full knowing of him.THE THREAD
That the God of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, the Father of weight, might give you a breath of wisdom and unveiling in the full knowing of him.Both verses use ἐπίγνωσις (epignōsis, knowing or recognition): here it is knowledge of God’s will; there it is knowledge of God. The shared word suggests that God’s will comes into view through knowing the one whose will it is, with wisdom and revelation opening that perception.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us