What Does John 1:17 Mean?
For the instruction was given through Moses, but favor and truth came through Jesus, the Anointed One.
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
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.THE KEY
The law is given, but favor and truth come to be through the one whose name means deliverance.
THE MEANING
The law is given through Moses; favor and truth come into being through Jesus Christ. Moses carries the name-sense “drawn out,” while Jesus (Yeshua) carries the name-sense “deliverance”: the verse places your present encounter with favor and truth in the movement of deliverance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that truth must come without favor, or that favor must hide the truth.
THE ROOT
ἐγένετο
egeneto
GROWS FROM
γεν
Come into being, be born, become.
The verb translated “came” means “came to be” or “became.” Its γεν- family also names origin and begetting, so the verse presents favor and truth as taking form and becoming present through Jesus Christ.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: Origin, birth, beginning.
γένεσις
The same root names the arising or beginning of what comes to be.
gennaō: Beget, bring forth, give birth.
γεννάω
This branch gives the root a generative sense: what comes to be is brought forth.
χάρις
charis
GROWS FROM
χαρ
Favor, goodwill freely shown.
The verse’s “grace” carries the sense of favor. Its word family links favor with freely giving and with a gift, so favor here takes shape as something bestowed through Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: Grant freely, bestow, forgive.
χαρίζομαι
The verb shows favor enacted as free giving and release.
charisma: Gift, freely given endowment.
χάρισμα
A gift is favor made tangible, revealing the giving within this word family.
ἀλήθεια
alētheia
GROWS FROM
ληθ
Be hidden, escape notice, be forgotten.
The ληθ-/λαθ- family is associated with what is hidden, escapes notice, or is forgotten; ἀλήθεια carries an alpha-privative form traditionally heard as “not hidden.” Joined with favor in this verse, truth comes into view without being separated from welcome.
ALSO GROWS
lēthē: Forgetfulness, oblivion.
λήθη
This word shares the ληθ consonants and names what slips out of sight through forgetting.
lanthanō: Escape notice, be hidden.
λανθάνω
Its related λανθ- form carries the same consonants and the sense of something remaining unseen.
alēthēs: True, truthful.
ἀληθής
This word shares the ληθ root and names what accords with truth.
THE PATTERN
Favor and truth belong together in God’s self-revelation; they are not competing gifts.
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,Faithful love and truth meet; alignment and wholeness kiss.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.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.The same Greek verb, ἐγένετο, appears in both verses: here, favor and truth come to be through Jesus; there, the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. John 1:14 shows favor and truth taking embodied form in the one who is present.
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