What Does Hebrews 12:14 Mean?
Pursue wholeness with all, and the setting apart, without which no one will perceive the LORD.
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
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:THE KEY
The word translated “follow” describes a chase: peace and set-apartness are pursued realities, not passive labels.
THE MEANING
Peace with everyone and a life set apart are active pursuits in the reader’s life now. The verse binds these pursuits to seeing the Lord: that seeing is not detached from the way a person lives among others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that seeing the Lord is detached from how a person pursues peace and set-apartness in daily life.
THE ROOT
διώκετε
diōkete
GROWS FROM
διώκω
diōkō
Pursue or chase; the same verb can also describe persecuting pursuit.
“pursue wholeness” in this verse is diōkete. The verb carries the force of a chase, not a passive following. Its direction matters: here that force is turned toward peace with everyone.
ALSO GROWS
diōgmos: Pursuit, persecution.
διωγμός
It shows that the word family can describe pursuit that harms; here the pursued aim is peace.
diōktēs: Persecutor, pursuer.
διώκτης
This branch makes the active force of the verb visible: pursuit is an action aimed somewhere.
εἰρήνην
eirēnēn
GROWS FROM
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
Peace, concord, wholeness.
The word family includes both being at peace and making peace. In this verse, wholeness is pursued in relationship, with all, rather than treated as private calm alone.
ALSO GROWS
eirēneuō: Be or live at peace.
εἰρηνεύω
This verb shows peace as a lived condition, not only an idea.
eirēnopoios: Peacemaker.
εἰρηνοποιός
This branch makes explicit the active work implicit in pursuing peace.
ἁγιασμόν
hagiasmon
GROWS FROM
ἁγιασμός
hagiasmos
Set-apartness, consecration.
“the setting apart” in this verse is hagiasmon. The word carries the sense of being set apart, a distinct direction in life. The verse holds that direction together with pursuing peace among people.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: Set apart, consecrate.
ἁγιάζω
This verb shows set-apartness as something enacted, not merely a label.
hagios: Set apart, sacred.
ἅγιος
This related word brings the quality of set-apartness into view beneath “holiness.”
THE PATTERN
Peace is a shared wholeness that scripture presents as something to seek and pursue.
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.So then let us pursue the things that move toward wholeness, and the things that build one another up.Let him turn aside from evil and do good; let him seek wholeness and pursue it.THE THREAD
Let him turn aside from evil and do good; let him seek wholeness and pursue it.Peter uses the same Greek words: εἰρήνη (eirēnē, peace or wholeness) and διώκω (diōkō, pursue). Hebrews’ call to pursue peace with all men echoes this image of peace as something actively sought and chased.
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