What Does John 19:34 Mean?
But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
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
But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.THE KEY
The word for Jesus’ side echoes the side from which life emerges in Genesis: here, blood and water flow from the opened side.
THE MEANING
The wound holds blood and water together in one image of what flows from Jesus’ opened side. When he appears again, that same side remains visible, so the wound is both an opening and a lasting mark.
THE ROOT
πλευρά
pleura
GROWS FROM
πλευρ-
pleur-
side, flank, or rib
The Greek word for Jesus’ side is also used for Adam’s rib in the Greek text of Genesis. That echo brings the opened side and the emergence of life into the same frame: here, blood and water come from the side that is pierced.
ALSO GROWS
pleura: rib or side; the word used for the rib in Genesis 2:22
πλευρά
The shared word links Jesus’ opened side with the side from which the woman is formed.
pleura: side; the word used again for Jesus’ side in John 20:27
πλευρά
The wound remains part of the scene when Thomas is invited to see Jesus’ side.
THE PATTERN
An opened side becomes the place where life or its witness emerges.
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from Adam, he built into a woman, and brought her to Adam.This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus, the Anointed One; not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood. And it is the breath that bears witness, because the breath is the truth.Then he said to Thomas, Bring your finger here, and look at my hands, and bring your hand here, and thrust it into my side, and do not become unsteady, but be steady.THE THREAD
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from Adam, he built into a woman, and brought her to Adam.The Greek text uses the same word for the rib here and for Jesus’ side in John. The shared word opens a creation echo: life emerges from the side that has been opened.
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