What Does James 5:14 Mean?
Is anyone among you without strength? Let him call to himself the older ones of the assembly, and let them pray over him, rubbing him with oil in the nature of 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
Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:THE KEY
The Greek word for “call” echoes the word for “assembly”: weakness summons the community’s elders into presence.
THE MEANING
When weakness is among you, the sick person calls the assembly’s elders. They respond with prayer over the person and oil applied in the Lord’s name, in his nature. Care for illness takes shape within shared life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that sickness must be borne alone dissolves here: weakness becomes a reason to call the community close.
THE ROOT
προσκαλεσάσθω
proskalesasthō
GROWS FROM
καλέω / κλη- (kaleō / klē-)
Call or summon; the shared καλε-/κλη- stem carries the sense of calling.
“call to himself” in this verse is proskalesasthō. The verb for “call” shares its call-stem with ἐκκλησία, the word translated “church” and understood as assembly. The Greek echoes the movement: the sick person summons the elders of the assembly toward them.
ALSO GROWS
ekklesia: Assembly
ἐκκλησία
The word for the community whose elders are summoned shares the call-stem with the verb.
klēsis: Calling, invitation
κλῆσις
It keeps the same call-root visible as an invitation or summons.
klētos: Called, invited
κλητός
It shows the root describing someone who has been called.
ἀλείψαντες
aleipsantes
GROWS FROM
ἀλειφ-
aleiph-
Rub or apply oil.
“rubbing” in this verse is aleipsantes. The word names an action performed with oil, giving the verse a concrete, bodily detail alongside prayer. This same verb appears when oil is applied to sick people in Mark 6:13.
ALSO GROWS
aleimma: Ointment
ἄλειμμα
This related noun makes the applied substance explicit.
aloiphē: Oiling, ointment
ἀλοιφή
It preserves the root’s sense of applying oil as an act.
ἀσθενεῖ
asthenei
GROWS FROM
σθεν-
sthen-
Strength; with the privative prefix ἀ-, the word describes lacking strength.
The Greek word for being sick carries the sense of weakness or being without strength. Its root opens the verse to bodily vulnerability as it is, without reducing the person to a diagnosis.
ALSO GROWS
sthenos: Strength
σθένος
It shows the strength-word within the root of the term for weakness.
asthenēs: Weak, without strength
ἀσθενής
This related form makes the root’s contrast with strength explicit.
astheneia: Weakness, illness
ἀσθένεια
It carries the same root into the noun for weakness or illness.
THE PATTERN
Care for vulnerability takes tangible form and becomes a shared concern.
You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.And they cast out many demons, and rubbed with oil many who were without strength, and healed them.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And they cast out many demons, and rubbed with oil many who were without strength, and healed them.James and Mark use the same Greek verb, ἀλείφω (aleiphō), for applying oil. In both verses, the word places oil within concrete care for the sick.
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