What Does John 1:44 Mean?
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
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
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.THE KEY
Bethsaida is not just Philip’s address here; it is the shared place that links his name with Andrew and Peter.
THE MEANING
You see Philip’s origin named alongside Andrew and Peter’s: all three are connected to Bethsaida. Before their stories unfold separately, this verse gives them a shared place of belonging.
THE ROOT
πόλεως
poleōs
GROWS FROM
πόλις
polis
city or city-state; a settled civic community
The Greek word translated “city” belongs to a family that also names citizens and civic life. Bethsaida is more than a point on a map here: it is a shared human place that connects Philip with Andrew and Peter.
ALSO GROWS
politēs: citizen
πολίτης
This word grows from the same πόλις family, naming a person through their belonging to a city.
politeia: citizenship; commonwealth
πολιτεία
This branch names civic belonging itself, extending the city from a location into a shared form of life.
THE PATTERN
A city can name a shared human world whose meaning exceeds an individual’s address.
So these came near to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, Sir, we want to perceive Jesus.And when he drew near, perceiving the city, he wept over it.For he waited for the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.THE THREAD
For he waited for the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.John’s “city” is πόλεως, a form of πόλις; Hebrews uses the same Greek word family for a city with foundations. The shared root lets the hometown that connects Philip, Andrew, and Peter open onto the idea of a city as a common dwelling.
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