What Does John 16:28 Mean?
I came out from the Father and have come into the world. Again I let go of the world, and I go to the Father.
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
I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.THE KEY
The same Father is both the source Jesus comes from and the destination toward which he releases the world.
THE MEANING
You hear Jesus name a movement that holds its beginning and end in the Father: he comes from the Father into the world, then leaves the world and goes to the Father. The world is neither the source nor the final destination of this movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that departure means disconnection dissolves here: the verse gives the departure a direction, to the Father.
THE ROOT
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
To let go, send away, leave, or forgive.
“let go of” in this verse is aphiēmi. The verb rendered “leave” also carries the sense of letting go and forgiving. Its range makes the departure more than a change of location: the world is released as the speaker goes toward the Father.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, remission, or forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
This noun carries the verb’s letting-go sense into the language of release and forgiveness.
aphienai: To let go, leave, or release.
ἀφιέναι
This infinitive preserves the act of release expressed by “leave” in the verse.
πατέρα
patera
GROWS FROM
πατήρ
patēr
Father; one who stands in a paternal relation.
The Father word belongs to a family of terms for lineage and paternal relation. The same Father is named as origin and destination, so the movement closes in relationship rather than merely in space.
ALSO GROWS
patria: Family, lineage, or kindred.
πατριά
Its sense of lineage echoes the Father as the source from whom the speaker comes.
patrikos: Paternal or ancestral.
πατρικός
This branch keeps the word’s connection to fatherhood and belonging in view.
THE PATTERN
Jesus’ movement is named as a passage from God into the world and onward to God.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came out from God and goes to God;No one has gone up into the heavens but the one who came down out of the heavens, the Son of Man, who is in the heavens.Who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."THE THREAD
And release our debts, as we also release our debtors.The verb ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, to leave or release) is also used for “forgive” in this prayer. The shared word places departure alongside letting go: here debts are released, while John names the world as what is left.
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