What Does John 4:17 Mean?

The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have said it well, I have no husband.

John 4:17 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

THE KEY

A true sentence does not need to contain the whole story to be true.

THE MEANING

The sentence you can speak now can be true without carrying every detail of your life. Jesus meets the words themselves and calls them well spoken; what remains can still be brought into view.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A truthful answer only counts if it tells the whole story.

THE ROOT

καλῶς

kalōs

GROWS FROM

καλός

kalos

Good, beautiful, fitting.

The adverb translated “well” comes from ⁨καλός⁩ (kalos, good, beautiful, fitting). Jesus affirms the answer as fittingly true as spoken, even though it does not yet encompass the whole story.

ALSO GROWS

kalos: Good, beautiful, or fitting.

καλός

This adjective supplies the quality carried by the adverb: her words are fittingly spoken.

kallos: Beauty.

κάλλος

This word from the same family gives “well said” a resonance of truth as fitting, not merely technically correct.

THE PATTERN

A truth that is named plainly can be affirmed before everything around it is disclosed.

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward parts; and in the sealed place you make me perceive wisdom.

Psalm 51:6 · SDVTruth is already present within, even as hidden places remain open to knowledge.

Jesus perceived Nathanael coming toward him, and said of him, Look, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no snare!

John 1:47 · SDVJesus names what is true of Nathanael directly, recognizing the absence of guile.

And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.

Hebrews 4:13 · SDVWhat is exposed to God’s sight can be named without concealment holding the whole story back.

THE THREAD

For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. This you have said in truth.

John 4:18 · SDV

The Greek noun ⁨ἄνδρα⁩ (andra, man or husband) returns as ⁨ἄνδρας⁩ (andras, men or husbands) in the next verse. The same word holds her sentence in its exact truth, then distinguishes the five former husbands from the man she now has.

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