What Does Hebrews 13:16 Mean?
But do not let slip the good you do and the sharing in common, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
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
But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.THE KEY
What you share for another’s good is called a sacrifice that pleases God.
THE MEANING
Doing good and sharing in common are living acts of worship. What passes from your hands into another person’s need is named as a sacrifice, and God takes pleasure in this shared life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that only explicitly religious offerings please God, while ordinary generosity sits outside worship.
THE ROOT
κοινωνία
koinōnia
GROWS FROM
κοινός
koinos
common; shared
“the sharing in common” in this verse is koinōnia. Koinōnia means participation in what is held in common. The same word family names what is shared, so this verse presents practical generosity as an offering: what you have moves into a life held in common.
ALSO GROWS
koinos: common; shared
κοινός
Its sense of what belongs in common reveals that sharing here means more than conversation: it is participation in another’s good.
koinōneō: to share; participate
κοινωνέω
This verb shows the active shape of koinōnia: entering into what another has or needs.
THE PATTERN
God receives concrete care and shared provision as offerings.
Whoever lends to the LORD shows favor to the emptied one, and what his hands have done, he makes whole for him.And all who trusted were together, and had all things in common.But I hold everything in full, and I overflow; I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a fragrance of sweetness, a sacrifice welcomed, well pleasing to God.THE THREAD
And all who trusted were together, and had all things in common.The word translated “common” is κοινά (koina), from the same word family as κοινωνία (koinōnia), “sharing in common.” Acts shows the lived shape of what Hebrews names as sacrifice: what is held becomes shared.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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