What Does John 10:23 Mean?

And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's colonnade.

John 10:23 · 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

And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.

THE KEY

“Temple” here means the larger temple precinct, placing Jesus in its shared colonnade rather than the inner sanctuary.

THE MEANING

The verse places you in sacred space open to movement: Jesus walks through the temple precinct, in Solomon’s colonnade. The encounter takes place along a passage where people can gather, not only at a hidden center.

THE ROOT

ἱερῷ

hierō

GROWS FROM

ἱερ-

hier-

Sacred; belonging to sacred things.

The word here is ⁨ἱερόν⁩ (hieron, temple precinct), which can refer to the larger temple grounds; Greek also has ⁨ναός⁩ (naos, inner sanctuary) for the more bounded sacred space. Solomon’s porch is a covered colonnade within that larger precinct, so the scene unfolds in a shared passage.

ALSO GROWS

hiereus: Priest.

ἱερεύς

This related word names a person serving within the sacred order, joining the precinct’s root family to its service.

hierateia: Priesthood.

ἱερατεία

This word for priestly service shows the same sacred root reaching from place to the practices carried out within it.

περιεπάτει

periepatei

GROWS FROM

πατέω

pateō

To tread, step, or walk.

“walked” in this verse is periepatei. Here the verb describes literal movement through a named colonnade; elsewhere, “walk” can also describe a way of life. Its shared footstep root can describe walking about or trampling depending on the compound, keeping bodily movement beneath the scene.

ALSO GROWS

peripateō: To walk about or go about.

περιπατέω

This is the verb’s underlying form, making the movement through Solomon’s porch concrete.

katapateō: To tread down or trample.

καταπατέω

The same footstep root shifts from ordinary walking to forceful treading when the compound changes.

THE PATTERN

The temple’s courts become places where sacred presence is met amid shared life.

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I choose to stand at the threshold of the house of my God rather than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Psalm 84:10 · SDVThe courts themselves are cherished as a place of nearness to God.

Now midway through the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.

John 7:14 · SDVJesus teaches in the temple as people gather there.

And through the hands of the sent ones many signs and wonders came to be among the people. And they were all with one passion in Solomon's colonnade.

Acts 5:12 · SDVSolomon’s porch again appears as a shared place where people meet and witness what is happening.

THE THREAD

And as the lame man, who had been healed, held fast to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the colonnade called Solomon's, stunned.

Acts 3:11 · SDV

John locates Jesus in Solomon’s porch; Acts names that same colonnade as the place where people gather around a healed man. The public passage becomes a shared space of movement and encounter.

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