What Does John 16:31 Mean?
Jesus answered them, Now do you trust?
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
Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?THE KEY
“Believe” is a present-tense trust: the question is whether your weight rests there now.
THE MEANING
Jesus’ question brings trust into the present: it is not merely something the reader once declared, but something alive now. The Greek word carries the sense of relying on what is trusted, so the question reaches beyond saying “I believe” to the trust beneath the words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that saying “I believe” puts trust beyond question; Jesus’ question leaves the claim open in the present.
THE ROOT
πιστεύετε
pisteuete
GROWS FROM
πιστ- (pist-), the shared stem of πιστεύω and πίστις
Trust, confidence, reliance.
The word translated “believe” belongs to the same Greek word family as πίστις (pistis), trust. It carries reliance, a placing of one’s weight in what is trusted, so Jesus’ question presses on the trust beneath the disciples’ words.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust, reliance
πίστις
This noun shares the stem of the verse’s verb and makes clear that “believe” points to reliance, not just agreement.
pistos: Firm, steady; trustworthy
πιστός
This related word brings out the steadiness associated with trust, sharpening the question of whether it is present now.
THE PATTERN
Trust is a living reliance that can be questioned, confessed in weakness, and sustained by what is heard.
Behold, his living soul is swollen, and it is not straight within him, but the aligned one shall live by the lean of his full weight.At once the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I lean my weight on you. Help where I cannot lean.So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.THE THREAD
But these are written so that you might lean your full weight on this, that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that by leaning your weight you might have life in his nature.“Believe” in both verses comes from the same πιστεύω (pisteuō) word family: trust, reliance. Here Jesus asks whether that trust is present now; there, trust opens toward life through his name, his nature.
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