What Does John 20:23 Mean?
Whose shortcomings you release, they are released to them; whose shortcomings you hold fast, they are held fast.
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
Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.THE KEY
The verse sets two opposite grips on the same missing: one releases it, and the other keeps hold of it.
THE MEANING
This verse gives your response to another person’s missing real weight: you can release it, or keep holding it in place. What is released is described as released; what is retained remains held.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a wrong, once named, must remain attached to someone forever: the verse makes release possible.
THE ROOT
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
GROWS FROM
ἀπό + ἵημι (apó + híēmi)
Send away; let go, release.
The Greek verb carries the sense of letting go or sending away, so “remit” names a real release. Its word family also connects release with leaving something behind.
ALSO GROWS
áphesis: Release, remission, forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
This noun from the same family makes the link between letting go and forgiveness visible.
apheînai: To let go, leave behind.
ἀφεῖναι
This form of the same verb family shows the concrete sense of releasing or leaving something behind.
ἁμαρτία
hamartía
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρταν-
hamartan-
Miss, fail, miss the mark.
“shortcomings” in this verse is hamartía. The word names what has missed its mark, while English “sins” can sound like a fixed category. Here the missing is something that can be released or held, without making it the whole nature of the person.
ALSO GROWS
hamartánō: To miss, fail, do wrong.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb makes the action within the noun visible: a miss can be named and then released or held.
hamartōlós: One who misses or does wrong; sinner.
ἁμαρτωλός
This related word shows how the same family can describe a person through the missing, which makes the verse’s distinction between the missing and what is done with it especially sharp.
κρατέω
kratéō
GROWS FROM
κρατ-
krat-
Hold fast, seize; have strength or power.
“hold fast” in this verse is kratéō. “Retain” can sound like keeping a record, but this verb carries the sense of holding fast. Beside release, it pictures the other possibility as keeping one’s grip on the missing.
ALSO GROWS
krátos: Strength, might, power.
κράτος
This related noun shows the strength or power contained in the idea of holding.
krataióō: Make strong, strengthen.
κραταιόω
This verb from the same family links holding fast with strength.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places release beside holding fast, showing that wrongdoing can be let go or kept in hand.
Who is a God like you, who lifts away crookedness and passes over the rebellion of the remnant of his inheritance? He does not grip his anger for the ages, for he delights in faithful love.Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on the earth will have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you unbind on the earth will have been unbound in the heavens.And he said to her, Your missed marks are released.THE THREAD
And he said to her, Your missed marks are released.The Greek verb translated “forgiven” is the same release verb behind “remit” here. Luke shows that release spoken over one person; John places the same possibility beside the choice to keep holding the missing.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us