What Does John 18:21 Mean?
Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard me what I spoke to them. Look, they know what I said.
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
Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said.THE KEY
The Greek word for “know” comes from “see”: what is spoken becomes visible in the testimony of those who heard it.
THE MEANING
Once your words are heard, listeners carry what they perceived. This verse places what is said in the reach of other people’s testimony, where it can be examined without depending on the speaker repeating it under pressure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that truth must be extracted again from the person being questioned; what has been spoken is already present in the hearing of witnesses.
THE ROOT
οἴδασιν
oidasin
GROWS FROM
οἶδα (oida), from εἴδω (eídō)
To see or perceive; by extension, to know.
The word translated “know” is οἴδασιν (oidasin, they know), a form of οἶδα (oida, know) whose root is tied to εἴδω (eídō, see). Knowledge here has the feel of perception: the hearers have taken in what was said, so the words are no longer only the speaker’s account.
ALSO GROWS
eîdon: saw, perceived
εἶδον
This form makes the root’s connection between seeing and knowing visible.
eîdos: form, appearance
εἶδος
A thing’s form is what can be seen; this branch echoes knowledge as perception.
ἀκηκοότας
akēkoótas
GROWS FROM
ἀκούω
akoúō
To hear or listen.
The word is ἀκηκοότας (akēkoótas, those who have heard), a form of ἀκούω (akoúō, hear or listen). Its perfect form presents the hearing as already received and still held: the witnesses carry the words with them.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: hearing, report
ἀκοή
What is heard can become a report shared beyond the original speaker.
hypakoúō: listen to, heed, obey
ὑπακούω
This compound shows hearing can lead into a response; the verse first points to the act of hearing itself.
THE PATTERN
A claim becomes accountable when it can be heard, tested, and witnessed by others.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.The aligned one at the head of his own contention seems straight, but his neighbor comes and searches him out.Does our instruction judge a man before it hears him, and know what he does?THE THREAD
I hold many things concerning you to speak and to judge; but the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him, these things I speak into the world.Both verses use forms of ἀκούω (akoúō, hear or listen). Here, those who heard hold the words as witnesses; there, Jesus speaks to the world what he has heard, making hearing the link through which testimony travels.
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