What Does Hebrews 5:14 Mean?
But firm food is for the complete, for those who through practice have their senses exercised to sift good from evil.
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 strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.THE KEY
Maturity is perception exercised until the senses themselves can distinguish good from evil.
THE MEANING
Strong nourishment belongs with faculties trained through use, so discernment develops through practiced perception. The verse presents maturity as a capacity to distinguish good from evil, not merely a label attached to a person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that age, rank, or information alone makes someone discerning; the verse ties discernment to perception trained through use.
THE ROOT
διάκρισιν
diakrisin
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To separate, distinguish, or judge.
“sift” in this verse is diakrisin. The word for discernment carries the idea of making distinctions. The verse describes good and evil as things the reader’s trained perception learns to tell apart.
ALSO GROWS
diakrinō: To distinguish or separate.
διακρίνω
This verb makes explicit the act of discerning that the verse names as a capacity.
krisis: Judgment or decision.
κρίσις
Judgment is a related act of distinguishing between possibilities.
kritikos: Able to judge or discern.
κριτικός
This is the word family behind “discerner” in Hebrews 4:12, linking trained discernment here with the Word’s power to discern.
γεγυμνασμένα
gegymnasmena
GROWS FROM
γυμνάζω
gymnazō
To train or exercise.
“exercised” in this verse is gegymnasmena. The Greek presents the faculties as trained, not simply active. Strong nourishment is joined to perception shaped through practice.
ALSO GROWS
gymnasia: Exercise or training.
γυμνασία
It carries the same training idea into the language of bodily exercise.
gymnastēs: A trainer or instructor.
γυμναστής
The related word names one who trains, underscoring that exercised faculties have been formed through practice.
αἰσθητήρια
aisthētēria
GROWS FROM
αἰσθάνομαι
aisthanomai
To perceive, feel, or notice.
“senses” in this verse is aisthētēria. The word names faculties of perception, the means by which something is felt and recognized. The verse locates discernment in practiced perception, not in an abstract badge of maturity.
ALSO GROWS
aisthēsis: Perception or discernment.
αἴσθησις
It names the act of sensing or perceiving that these faculties perform.
aisthētikos: Perceptive or capable of sensing.
αἰσθητικός
This related form describes the capacity to perceive, illuminating how the faculties can be trained.
THE PATTERN
Discernment takes shape as perception is exercised, tested, and formed through practice.
Then you discern alignment, and judgment, and straightness, and every good track.All training, for the present, does not seem to be joy but pain; but afterward it gives back the wholesome fruit of alignment to those who have been exercised by it.Do not take the shape of this age, but be reshaped by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test what is the good, well-pleasing, and complete will of God.THE THREAD
For the word of God is living and working, and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching through even to the dividing of living soul and breath, of joints and marrow, and it separates the inward movements and thoughts of the heart.The word translated “discerner” is kritikos, from the same krinō word family as “discernment” here; both carry the idea of judging or separating. Hebrews 5:14 shows this capacity being trained in the reader, while Hebrews 4:12 describes the Word discerning what lies within.
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