What Does John 1:16 Mean?
And from his fullness we have all taken, and favor for favor.
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
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.THE KEY
Every favor received here comes from fullness, and the phrase lets favor follow favor.
THE MEANING
His fullness is the source from which you receive; the verse places you among all who receive. Favor for favor pictures favor meeting favor, flowing from what is full.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that favor arrives as a one-time allotment: the verse presents favor following favor from fullness.
THE ROOT
πληρώματος
plērōmatos
GROWS FROM
πληρ-
plēr-
To fill or make full; πλήρωμα names the resulting fullness.
The phrase ἐκ τοῦ πληρώματος means “out of the fullness”: fullness is the source from which all receive. The same word family describes filling and being full, keeping the image of fullness concrete.
ALSO GROWS
plēroō: To fill or bring to completion.
πληρόω
It shows the action carried by the same word family that names the fullness from which everyone receives.
plērēs: Full or filled.
πλήρης
John 1:14 uses this word for the Word as full of favor and truth; here that fullness becomes the source of receiving.
ἀντί
antí
GROWS FROM
ἀντι-
anti-
In place of, in exchange for, or corresponding to.
“favor for favor” in this verse is antí. In χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος, ἀντί lets the phrase carry the sense of favor in place of favor, or favor corresponding to favor. It gives “grace for grace” a sense of favor following or answering favor.
ALSO GROWS
antállagma: Something given in exchange.
ἀντάλλαγμα
It shows how ἀντί can carry the sense of exchange within the phrase.
antítypos: Something that corresponds to or answers to another thing.
ἀντίτυπος
It shows that ἀντί can mark correspondence as well as exchange.
χάριτος
charitos
GROWS FROM
χάρ-
char-
Favor or gracious regard.
“grace” in this verse is charitos. The repeated χάρις is favor, and it belongs to a word family that also describes freely granted gifts. Joined with ἀντί, it gives the phrase its movement of favor following favor.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: To give freely or show favor.
χαρίζομαι
It brings out the freely given quality carried by the favor in this verse.
charisma: A gift freely given as favor.
χάρισμα
It shows favor taking shape as something received.
THE PATTERN
What is full gives from its abundance, and those who receive are satisfied from it.
They are drenched with the fatness of your house; and you make them drink from the stream of your delights.Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.In him we have our ransom through his blood, the release of our stumbles, according to the riches of his favor.THE THREAD
And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.John 1:14 calls the Word full of favor and truth; John 1:16 uses the same Greek fullness family and repeats charis, favor. The image moves from fullness embodied to everyone receiving from that fullness.
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