What Does John 13:20 Mean?
Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who takes hold of whoever I send takes hold of me; and the one who takes me takes hold of the one who sent me.
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
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.THE KEY
The welcome given to the one Jesus sends travels through Jesus to the Sender.
THE MEANING
When you receive someone Jesus sends, your welcome reaches Jesus; receiving Jesus reaches the One who sends him. The relationship of sending carries presence through each link, so reception does not stop at the person before you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that receiving a messenger is merely a human gesture, disconnected from the one who sent them.
THE ROOT
λαμβάνω
lambanō
GROWS FROM
λαβ
lab
Take, grasp, receive.
“takes hold of whoever I send” in this verse is lambanō. The verse uses one verb family throughout: λαμβάνων (lambanōn, receiving) and λαμβάνει (lambanei, receives), forms of λαμβάνω (lambanō, take in or receive). The family also includes words for receiving or taking alongside and for grasping or comprehending; here, the repeated verb makes reception the act that carries the relationship through every link.
ALSO GROWS
paralambanō: Receive or take alongside.
παραλαμβάνω
Its sense of taking someone alongside gives texture to receiving the one Jesus sends.
katalambanō: Seize, grasp, reach, or comprehend.
καταλαμβάνω
Its sense of grasping echoes the verse’s active movement of taking in the person who arrives.
THE PATTERN
Receiving or rejecting a sent representative extends through the relationship to the one who sent them.
And the LORD said to Samuel, Hear and respond to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not spurned you, but they have spurned me, that I should not reign over them.Whoever takes you in takes me in, and whoever takes me in takes in the one who sent me.That all may give weight to the Son, even as they give it to the Father. Whoever does not give it to the Son does not give it to the Father who sent him.THE THREAD
I have come in my Father's nature, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own nature, him you will receive.This verse repeats λαμβάνω (lambanō, receive), turning the same act into a contrast: Jesus is not received, while another is. It pairs reception with ὄνομα (onoma, name as nature), showing that what is received carries the nature of the one who comes.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us