What Does John 13:9 Mean?
Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
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
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.THE KEY
Peter’s request reveals that once the washing reaches his feet, he wants no part of himself left outside it.
THE MEANING
Peter sees the washing begin at his feet and asks for his hands and head to be included too. When cleansing reaches one place, the whole self comes into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only the part first touched belongs in the washing: Peter asks for his hands and head as well as his feet.
THE ROOT
νίπτω
níptō
GROWS FROM
νιπτ
nipt- stem
Wash, especially a part of the body.
“wash” in this verse is níptō. The washing Peter asks to extend is the kind named by this verb: washing a body part, as Jesus has just done with the disciples’ feet. The next verse distinguishes this localized washing from a whole-body bath, bringing the difference between one part and the whole into focus.
ALSO GROWS
niptḗr: Washing basin
νιπτήρ
The basin is the tool of the foot washing Peter wants extended to his hands and head.
aponíptō: Wash off
ἀπονίπτω
This compound uses the same stem for washing off; Matthew uses it when Pilate washes his hands, sharpening the contrast between receiving a washing and using a gesture to disclaim responsibility.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing reaches beyond what is first exposed and takes in the whole person.
Tread me thoroughly clean of my crookedness, and cleanse me of my falling short.Then I will sprinkle clean waters upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols.Not from works of alignment that we did, but according to his compassion he delivered us, through the bath of rebirth and the making new of the Set-Apart Breath.THE THREAD
When Pilate saw that he gained nothing, but that instead an uproar was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this aligned man. You see to it.The washing Peter asks to extend is named with níptō in the scene just before this verse, and Matthew uses the same stem in the verb for Pilate washing his hands. Peter asks for his hands to be included in Jesus’ washing; Pilate washes his hands as he distances himself from responsibility.
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