What Does John 20:21 Mean?
Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send 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
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.THE KEY
Jesus speaks wholeness over his followers, then makes that wholeness part of what moves outward through the people he sends.
THE MEANING
The wholeness Jesus speaks accompanies his followers as they are sent; it is the ground from which they move. The reader is drawn into the same pattern: what comes from the Father through Jesus continues outward through those he sends.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Peace does not mean exemption from being sent; here, wholeness and outward movement belong together.
THE ROOT
ἀπέσταλκεν
apestalken
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω (apostellō), from ἀπό + στέλλω
To send out or dispatch; to send someone forth with a commission.
“sent” in this verse is apestalken. The Greek uses apostellō for the Father sending Jesus, then a different verb, pempō, when Jesus says he sends the disciples. The words are distinct, but “as ... even so” carries the sending forward from Father to Jesus to his followers.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: A sent one; a messenger.
ἀπόστολος
The sending gives the messenger a relation to the one who sends.
apostolē: A sending or commission.
ἀποστολή
It names the onward movement that the verse places in Jesus’ followers.
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
GROWS FROM
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
Wholeness, well-being, concord.
The peace Jesus speaks is wholeness, not merely a calm feeling. It is spoken before the sending, so the movement begins with wholeness given to the disciples.
ALSO GROWS
eirenopoios: Peacemaker.
εἰρηνοποιός
The word joins peace with the person who makes or carries it.
eirenopoieō: To make peace.
εἰρηνοποιέω
This branch shows peace as something that can be brought into relationships, fitting the outward movement of the verse.
THE PATTERN
The one who sends carries the sender’s presence forward through those who are sent.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am; send me.Whoever takes you in takes me in, and whoever takes me in takes in the one who sent me.And how will they herald unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!THE THREAD
As you sent me into the world, so I also have sent them into the world.John 17:18 uses the same Greek verb, apostellō, for the Father sending Jesus and Jesus sending his followers. In John 20:21, Jesus shifts to pempō for sending the disciples, while the “as ... even so” pattern keeps the movement connected.
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