What Does John 17:17 Mean?
Set them apart through your truth; your word is truth.
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
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.THE KEY
The word’s truth is not only a message about what is real; it is what sets you apart.
THE MEANING
You are set apart as truth reaches you; the word is not merely information about reality but the truth through which you are distinguished. What is true becomes the ground of your belonging and your distinctness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that being set apart comes from a status or mark you produce for yourself: it locates that distinction in truth and in the word that is truth.
THE ROOT
ἁγίασον
hagiason
GROWS FROM
ἅγιος (hagios), ἁγι-
Set apart; sacred or dedicated.
The verb is a request to set them apart, and the phrase places that action within truth. Its related forms keep the movement visible: what is set apart and the act of setting apart, so the verse describes a change of belonging, not just a label.
ALSO GROWS
hagios: Set apart; sacred.
ἅγιος
It names the distinct state that the verse asks to come about.
hagiasmos: Setting apart; consecration.
ἁγιασμός
It keeps the act of becoming distinct within the same word family.
ἀλήθεια
alētheia
GROWS FROM
ἀληθ-
alēth-
Truth; what is real or genuine.
The verse calls the word itself truth, not merely a statement that happens to be accurate. This word family joins what is true with the expression of truth, linking the reality received with the way it is spoken.
ALSO GROWS
alēthēs: True; genuine.
ἀληθής
It describes what belongs to the reality named by truth.
alētheuō: Speak or act truthfully.
ἀληθεύω
It shows truth extending from what is real into its expression.
THE PATTERN
Truth works through the word to cleanse and distinguish the person who receives it.
How does a young man cleanse his way? By guarding it according to your word.That he might set her apart, cleansing her with the bath of water by the word.And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.THE THREAD
That he might set her apart, cleansing her with the bath of water by the word.The verb translated “sanctify” is the same Greek verb used in John 17:17, so both verses place setting apart within a work accomplished through truth and the word. Ephesians adds cleansing, showing that this distinction also clears away what covers wholeness.
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