What Does John 16:15 Mean?
All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he takes hold of what is mine and brings word back to you.
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
All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.THE KEY
What the Spirit makes known is received from what the Father and Son already share.
THE MEANING
What belongs to the Father is already the Son’s; the Spirit receives from that shared fullness and makes it known to you. Revelation reaches you as communication of what is already held in common.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the Father’s fullness is separate from the Son’s, or that what is shown to you must come from a source outside what they share.
THE ROOT
λαμβάνει
lambánei
GROWS FROM
λαμβ-
lamb-
To take or receive.
“takes hold of what is mine” in this verse is lambánei. This verb carries both taking and receiving: what is taken here is received from what is already the Son’s. The verse presents disclosure as the passing on of what is already held, rather than something appearing from nowhere.
ALSO GROWS
paralambánō: To receive or take along.
παραλαμβάνω
The shared verb stem keeps the sense of receiving something that is passed on.
katalambánō: To take hold of, overtake, or grasp.
καταλαμβάνω
Its compound extends the same taking-root toward grasping what has been received.
ἀναγγελεῖ
anangeleî
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
To announce or report.
“brings word back to you” in this verse is anangeleî. This word can mean announcing or reporting, so the movement is communicative: what is received becomes known to you. The verse describes the Spirit carrying forward what is shared, rather than presenting an unrelated message.
ALSO GROWS
angelía: An announcement or report.
ἀγγελία
The message is what the act of announcing carries to its hearers.
ángelos: A messenger who carries or announces a message.
ἄγγελος
The messenger shares the same announcement-word family, illuminating the Spirit’s role in making what is received known.
THE PATTERN
What is held in God is received and made known, bringing what is given into human understanding.
Then Jesus answered and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son is not able to do anything from himself, unless he sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does.The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the uncovered things belong to us and to our children for the ages, that we may do all the words of this instruction.Now we have taken hold not of the breath of the world, but of the breath that is from God, so that we might know the things God has favored us with.THE THREAD
He will lift up my weight, because he will take hold of what is mine and bring word back to you.The same receive-and-announce movement appears here: the Spirit receives what is Jesus’s and makes it known to you. The next verse reveals why this is also the Father’s: everything the Father has belongs to the Son.
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