What Does John 10:22 Mean?
Then came the feast of renewal at Jerusalem, and it was winter.
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 it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.THE KEY
The dedication feast carries the root of newness, and the verse places that new beginning in winter.
THE MEANING
Renewal is named while winter is still present. Dedication and cold occupy the same moment: what is set apart can begin anew before the surrounding season changes. Jerusalem’s name carries wholeness, even as the weather remains winter.
THE ROOT
ἐγκαίνια
enkainia
GROWS FROM
καινός
kainos
New, fresh; the stem in ἐγκαίνια carries the sense of inauguration and renewal.
“feast of renewal” in this verse is enkainia. The Greek word for dedication is built on kainos, “new,” so the feast’s name carries renewal within it. The verse locates that new beginning inside winter, with the cold still present.
ALSO GROWS
kainos: new, fresh
καινός
This is the stem carried inside ἐγκαίνια, placing newness within the idea of dedication.
enkainizō: inaugurate, dedicate
ἐγκαινίζω
Hebrews 10:20 uses this verb for the way opened as “new and living.”
anakainōsis: renewal
ἀνακαίνωσις
Romans 12:2 uses this related word for renewal, showing the same newness taking shape within a life.
חֲנֻכָּה
Ḥanukkāh
GROWS FROM
ח־נ־ך
ḥ-n-k
Initiate, dedicate, train; to set something on a path.
“feast of renewal” in this verse is Ḥanukkāh. The feast’s Hebrew name, Hanukkah, comes from chanak, the same root behind “train up” in Proverbs 22:6. The root links dedication with initiation: what is dedicated is set on a path toward its purpose.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānak: dedicate, inaugurate
חָנַךְ
The same root describes dedicating the house of the LORD in 1 Kings 8:63.
ḥănōḵ: train up, initiate
חֲנֹךְ
Proverbs 22:6 uses this form for beginning a child in a way.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שׁ־ל־ם
sh-l-m
Be whole, complete; shalom carries the sense of wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name Yerushalayim carries shalom, wholeness, in its -ayim form. The verse places the name of wholeness beside winter, holding both in one scene without saying the cold has passed.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness
שָׁלוֹם
This is the familiar form carried within the name Yerushalayim.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This related form makes the root’s sense of wholeness explicit.
THE PATTERN
What is dedicated is inaugurated for renewed life and use.
And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the exile, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy.A fresh and living way that he opened anew for us through the hanging curtain of his flesh;So we were laid in the ground with him through immersion into death, that as the Anointed One was raised from the dead through the weight of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.THE THREAD
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he grows old, he does not turn aside from it.The Hebrew name Hanukkah comes from חנך (chanak), the same root translated “train up” here. The shared root links dedication with initiation: something is set on a path and formed toward its purpose.
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