What Does James 5:16 Mean?
Speak your stumbles into the open to one another, and pray over one another, that you may be made whole. The asking of an aligned one, working within, is very strong.
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
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.THE KEY
The verse makes healing a shared uncovering: what is named between people is met by prayer already at work.
THE MEANING
Healing moves through honest speech between people and prayer carried for one another. What is named can be met with healing, and the prayer of an aligned person has great force as it works.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that naming a failure only deepens condemnation is unsettled here: this verse places open acknowledgment alongside prayer and healing.
THE ROOT
ἰαθῆτε
iathēte
GROWS FROM
ἰα-
ia-
to heal, cure
“made whole” in this verse is iathēte. The Greek form means “that you may be healed” and presents healing as something received within this mutual practice. Its word family also names healing itself and the healer, keeping the outcome concrete as restoration.
ALSO GROWS
iasis: healing, cure
ἴασις
The same family names healing itself, making explicit what the clause says is received.
iatros: physician, healer
ἰατρός
The healer and the healing share a word family, keeping the verse’s outcome concrete as restoration.
ἁμαρτίας
hamartias
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
missing, missing the mark
“stumbles” in this verse is hamartias. The Greek word behind “faults” names missings. Speaking them between people brings what could remain hidden and undefined into the open where prayer and healing meet it.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: to miss, fail, do wrong
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb shows the same language of missing in an action, rather than a fixed identity.
hamartēma: a wrong, offense, failure
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun carries the language of missing into a particular failure that can be named.
ἐνεργουμένη
energoumenē
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
work, do
The Greek gathers “effectual fervent” into one participle meaning “at work.” It adds the image of prayer in operation, whose working the verse describes as having great strength.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: work, deed
ἔργον
This word shares the work-root and gives the phrase its concrete sense of activity.
energeia: activity, working
ἐνέργεια
This related word makes clear the idea of something actively operating.
THE PATTERN
What is brought out of concealment can move toward restoration.
Whoever covers his rebellions shall not prosper, but whoever speaks them into the open and lets them go shall be shown compassion.If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.THE THREAD
If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.James uses exomologeomai for “confess,” while John uses homologeō; they belong to a related word family of confessing and acknowledging. John pairs confession with release and cleansing, while James ties mutual confession to healing.
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