What Does Hebrews 13:14 Mean?
For here we have no city that remains, but we search for the one that is coming.
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 here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.THE KEY
The verse sets what cannot remain here against the city still coming into view.
THE MEANING
No city here can remain your final home. The one you seek is still ahead, so the verse holds impermanence and expectation together. Your present place can matter without being permanent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the place you inhabit can become permanent enough to be your final home.
THE ROOT
μένουσαν
menousan
GROWS FROM
μένω
menō
Remain, stay, abide.
“that remains” in this verse is menousan. “Continuing” carries the sense of remaining or abiding, the same word family that gives Greek its word for a dwelling place. The city sought here is set against the possibility of anything here remaining as a lasting home.
ALSO GROWS
menō: Remain, stay, abide.
μένω
In John 15:4, Jesus says “Abide in me”; the same verb links remaining with the place one dwells.
monē: Dwelling place, abode.
μονή
In John 14:2, “mansions” translates the plural μοναί (monai), a related word for dwelling places.
πόλιν
polin
GROWS FROM
πόλις
polis
City; an organized civic community.
The Greek word for city also gives words for citizenship and living as a citizen. The coming city is therefore not only a place to reach; it names a belonging that is still ahead.
ALSO GROWS
politeuma: Citizenship, commonwealth.
πολίτευμα
Philippians 3:20 uses this word when it says, “our conversation is in heaven”; city and citizenship belong to the same word family.
politeuomai: Live as a citizen, conduct oneself as a citizen.
πολιτεύομαι
In Philippians 1:27, the word describes how one lives as a citizen, joining the city’s identity to one’s way of life.
μέλλουσαν
mellousan
GROWS FROM
μέλλω
mellō
Be about to; be destined to happen.
“the one that is coming” in this verse is mellousan. The city is described as what is to come, not as a settled possession already here. The verse places the sought city in a future that is still approaching.
ALSO GROWS
mellōn: Coming, future, about to happen.
μέλλων
In Hebrews 2:5, “the world to come” uses this word family, linking what is ahead with the same forward-looking horizon.
ta mellonta: The things to come, future things.
τὰ μέλλοντα
The phrase appears in Romans 8:38 for what is still ahead, echoing the verse’s attention to a future not yet present.
THE PATTERN
The limits of present belonging turn the gaze toward a city and citizenship still to come.
For he waited for the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.For our citizenship is in the heavens, from there also we await the Deliverer, the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.And I, John, see the set-apart city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, made ready as a bride arranged for her husband.THE THREAD
In my Father's house are many places to remain. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to make ready a place for you.Hebrews’ “continuing” is μένουσαν (menousan), from μένω (menō, remain or abide); John’s “mansions” translates μοναί (monai), a related word for dwelling places. Hebrews names the absence of a lasting city here, while John gives the coming dwelling a more intimate scale: a prepared place in the Father’s house.
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