What Does John 16:7 Mean?
But I speak the truth to you. It carries you forward that I go away, for if I do not go away, the One who comes alongside will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him 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
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.THE KEY
The word translated “expedient” carries the sense of bringing things together: here the departure becomes the condition for the Comforter’s coming to you.
THE MEANING
The leaving is beneficial to you because it makes the Comforter’s coming possible. The one who departs also sends him to you, holding departure and arrival together in the same promise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that this departure means only absence: the verse says it also makes the Comforter’s arrival possible.
THE ROOT
συμφέρει
sympherei
GROWS FROM
φερ-
pher-
Carry, bear, bring; joined with σύν (syn, “together”), the word can mean “bring together” and so “be advantageous.”
“carries you forward” in this verse is sympherei. “Expedient” can sound like bare usefulness, but the Greek word also carries the image of bringing things together. The departure is called beneficial because it opens the way for the Comforter to come to you.
ALSO GROWS
pherō: Carry, bear, bring.
φέρω
This is the base verb, making the idea of benefit grow from what is carried or brought.
prospherō: Bring toward; offer.
προσφέρω
The same root can describe something brought toward another, echoing the Comforter being sent to you.
anapherō: Carry up; offer.
ἀναφέρω
The root still holds the sense of bearing something toward a purpose, deepening the verse’s movement from departure to arrival.
THE PATTERN
An apparent loss can become the passage through which life reaches others.
And now, do not be pained, and do not let it burn in your eyes that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to keep alive.Truly, truly, I say to you. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.So then death works in us, but life in you.THE THREAD
Nor do you reckon that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.Both verses use the same Greek verb translated “expedient.” Here the benefit is named beside one man’s death; in John 16:7, it is named beside departure and the Comforter’s coming.
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