What Does John 14:7 Mean?
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you know him, and you have perceived him.
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
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.THE KEY
The verse’s two words for “know” turn recognition of Jesus into seeing the Father: one Greek word for knowing is historically rooted in seeing.
THE MEANING
Knowing Jesus opens into knowing the Father; the verse joins these as one recognition. The Greek shifts from a word for coming to know to one historically rooted in “having seen,” then makes the seeing explicit: “from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” In Jesus, the Father comes into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that knowing Jesus and knowing the Father are separate discoveries: the verse joins them and speaks of knowing and seeing the Father as present.
THE ROOT
ἐγνώκειτέ
egnōkeite from ginōskō
GROWS FROM
γνω-/γνο- (gnō-/gno-)
Know, recognize, come to know
“you had known me” in this verse is egnōkeite from ginōskō. English repeats “known” and “know,” and both forms here come from ginōskō, a verb of coming to know or recognizing. But the next “known my Father” uses a different Greek verb, setting up a shift from recognition to knowing expressed through seeing.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: Knowledge, recognition
γνώσις
It shares the knowing stem and emphasizes recognition as something arrived at.
gnōstos: Known, familiar
γνωστός
Its sense of being known echoes the recognition at the center of Jesus’ words.
ᾔδειτε
ēdeite from oida
GROWS FROM
historical *ϝιδ- (*wid-), reflected in εἰδ- (eid-)
See; by extension, know or perceive
“known my Father” in this verse is ēdeite from oida. The Father’s “known” is not the same Greek verb as “known me”: ᾔδειτε comes from οἶδα, a perfect form historically meaning “have seen” that also means “know.” The following “have seen him” makes that old seeing sense audible in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
eidos: Form, appearance
εἶδος
This related word names what is seen or perceived, keeping the language of knowing close to sight.
idea: Form, appearance
ἰδέα
It belongs to the same historical seeing-family, linking perception with what takes shape in the mind.
ἑωράκατε
heōrakate from horaō
GROWS FROM
ὁρα-
hora-
See, look at, perceive
“have perceived him” in this verse is heōrakate from horaō. The final “seen” is an explicit seeing word, horaō, so knowing reaches into perception. The Father comes into view through Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
horama: Vision, what is seen
ὅραμα
It makes visible the connection between seeing and what enters perception.
horasis: Sight, vision
ὅρασις
It names the act or faculty of seeing that the verse places beside knowing.
THE PATTERN
The unseen Father becomes perceivable through the Son who reveals him.
No one has ever seen God. The only-born God, who is at the breast of the Father, has led him out.Who is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of all creation.Who, being the radiance of his weight and the exact stamp of his foundation, carrying all things by the word of his power, when he had made the cleansing of shortcomings, sat down at the right hand of the Greatness on high.THE THREAD
No one has ever seen God. The only-born God, who is at the breast of the Father, has led him out.Both verses use forms of ὁράω (horaō, see): John 14:7 says “have seen him,” while John 1:18 says the Son has declared the unseen God. The shared seeing-word opens the connection: the Father comes into view through the Son.
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