What Does John 10:19 Mean?

Again there was a split among the Jews because of these words.

John 10:19 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.

THE KEY

“Division” is a tear among the hearers: the same sayings expose a fault line in how they receive Jesus.

THE MEANING

These sayings reach you now, and the same words do not settle every hearer into one response. Their reception exposes a split in how Jesus is seen.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Hearing the same words does not guarantee seeing the same thing.

THE ROOT

σχίσμα

schisma

GROWS FROM

σχιζ-

schiz-

to split or tear

“split” in this verse is schisma. The Greek word for division belongs to the family of words for splitting or tearing. English can make this sound like mere disagreement; the root gives it the force of a tear opening among people as they hear the same sayings.

ALSO GROWS

schizō: to split or tear

σχίζω

This verb names the action behind the division: the hearers are split apart.

schisma: a split, rent, or division

σχίσμα

This noun names the tear that appears among the hearers in the verse.

THE PATTERN

A saying about Jesus can become the point where hearers divide over what they see.

So a split arose among the crowd because of him.

John 7:43 · SDVThe same Greek word for division names the split that forms around Jesus.

Do you suppose that I came to give wholeness on the earth? No, I say to you, but rather a splitting apart.

Luke 12:51 · SDVJesus names division as a possible response to his presence and words.

But the multitude of the city was split, and some held with the Jews, and some with the sent ones.

Acts 14:4 · SDVThe city divides over the message carried by the apostles.

THE THREAD

So a split arose among the crowd because of him.

John 7:43 · SDV

Both verses use the same Greek word for a split or tear. John 10:19 says this happens “again”: the sayings around Jesus repeatedly become the seam where hearers part ways.

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