What Does John 10:18 Mean?
No one lifts it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. I have received this commandment from my Father.
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
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.THE KEY
English says “take” twice, but Greek distinguishes a life removed from Jesus from a life he receives again.
THE MEANING
No one removes this life from Jesus; he lays it down of himself and has authority to receive it again. His agency remains whole even as he receives the command from the Father. Life here is something he can lay down and take up again.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that receiving a command makes the action passive: the command is received, while the laying down is still “of myself.”
THE ROOT
αἴρω
airō
GROWS FROM
αἰρ-
air-
To lift, carry away, or remove.
“lifts it from me” in this verse is airō. The verb for what no one does to Jesus describes removal. The later “take it again” uses a different verb, so the English repetition conceals the difference between having life taken away and receiving it again.
ALSO GROWS
aphaireō: Take away or remove.
ἀφαιρέω
It carries the removal sense of this verb family, sharpening what Jesus says no one can do to him.
epairō: Lift or raise.
ἐπαίρω
It shows the same family’s image of lifting, beneath the sense of carrying something away.
λαμβάνω
lambanō
GROWS FROM
λαβ-
lab-
To take hold of, receive, or obtain.
“take it up again” in this verse is lambanō. The word translated “take” here can also mean “receive.” The verse presents the return of life as something Jesus takes up again, distinct from the removal expressed by αἴρω (airō, lift or remove).
ALSO GROWS
paralambanō: Receive or take along with oneself.
παραλαμβάνω
It makes the receiving sense of this root visible: taking can mean receiving something into one’s keeping.
katalambanō: Seize, grasp, or overtake.
καταλαμβάνω
It shows the root’s stronger sense of taking hold, which contrasts with the receiving sense available in this verse.
τίθημι
tithēmi
GROWS FROM
θη-
thē-
To put, set, or place.
The life is the object being placed, but Jesus is the one doing the placing: “I lay it down of myself.” The word holds voluntary action inside the image of laying something down.
ALSO GROWS
apotithēmi: Put aside or lay down.
ἀποτίθημι
It shows this placing root describing something deliberately set aside.
epitithēmi: Place or lay upon.
ἐπιτίθημι
It shows the same root describing an intentional placing, here with something laid upon another.
THE PATTERN
Life can pass through death without falling beyond the reach of authority that brings it up again.
The LORD kills, and makes alive; he brings down to the grave, and brings up.For this reason my Father loves me, because I lay down my living soul, so that I might take it up again.God raised him up, having loosed the labor pangs of death, for it was not possible for him to be held by it.THE THREAD
For this reason my Father loves me, because I lay down my living soul, so that I might take it up again.This verse gives the Father’s love as the reason for the same laying down and taking again. The repeated Greek verbs connect the received command in verse 18 to an act Jesus names as his own.
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