What Does John 12:31 Mean?
Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world is thrown out.
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 is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.THE KEY
The world and its ruler stand inside the same judgment: the order that governs this world is already being displaced.
THE MEANING
Judgment is present now, and the ruler of this world is being cast out. The power that appears to govern the world is itself within the reach of that judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the world’s ruling power is permanent or beyond judgment.
THE ROOT
κόσμου
kosmou
GROWS FROM
κόσμος
kosmos
World; also an ordered arrangement.
The same word can name the world and an arrangement or order. The verse places that world, together with its ruler, within the judgment now taking place.
ALSO GROWS
kosmeō: Arrange, adorn, put in order.
κοσμέω
This branch makes the sense of an ordered world audible beneath the English word “world.”
kosmios: Orderly, well-arranged.
κόσμιος
It shares the word’s connection to order, sharpening the contrast between a world’s apparent arrangement and its exposure to judgment.
κρίσις
krisis
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
“Judgment” carries the sense of a decision that distinguishes and determines. The verse links that decision about the world with the ruler’s removal from it.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: Judge, decide, or distinguish.
κρίνω
This verb appears in John 16:11 for the prince of this world being judged.
krima: A judgment or verdict.
κρίμα
This related word shows the root’s movement from judging to the verdict that follows.
ἐκβληθήσεται
ekblēthēsetai
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw or cast; ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) means to cast out.
The verb pictures the ruler being thrown out from a place or domain. Its passive form leaves the actor unstated, while the verse makes the result clear: the ruler is displaced.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: Throw or cast.
βάλλω
This is the basic verb beneath the verse’s image of being cast out.
kataballō: Throw down or cast down.
καταβάλλω
This related compound carries the same casting action toward a lower position, echoing the loss of standing implied here.
THE PATTERN
When a world’s ruling powers come under judgment, their claim to govern is exposed and overturned.
A Psalm of Asaph. God stands in the assembly of the Mighty One; in the midst of the gods he judges.Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.Having stripped away the rulers and the authorities, he displayed them in the open, leading them in procession in him.THE THREAD
Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.John 12:31 uses κρίσις (krisis, judgment), while John 16:11 uses the related verb κρίνω (krinō, judge) for the prince of this world. The shared root makes explicit that the ruler’s expulsion is the world’s judgment reaching its ruler.
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