What Does John 4:18 Mean?
For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. This you have said in truth.
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
For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.THE KEY
Jesus names her words true even as he brings the rest of her situation into view.
THE MEANING
Two things stand together: the man you have now is not your husband, and what you have said is true. A complicated or exposed history does not make every word false; truth can be spoken while more is being brought into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a complicated history makes everything you say untrue dissolves here: Jesus recognizes her words as true while naming her situation plainly.
THE ROOT
ἀληθές
alēthes
GROWS FROM
ληθ-
lēth-
A Greek word-family associated with being hidden or escaping notice, seen in λανθάνω (lanthanō, “to be hidden” or “escape notice”). The “not hidden” resonance is suggestive; here, ἀληθές means “true.”
“in truth” in this verse is alēthes. The Greek word for “true” belongs to a family associated with what escapes notice or is hidden. That gives the verse an undertone of truth coming into view: her words are affirmed even as the facts around them are made plain.
ALSO GROWS
alētheia: Truth.
ἀλήθεια
The same word-family appears in John 3:21, where truth is joined to coming into the light.
lēthē: Forgetfulness, oblivion.
λήθη
Its relation to the same word-family echoes the contrast between what slips from notice and what is spoken as true.
lanthanō: Be hidden; escape notice.
λανθάνω
This related verb supplies the word-family’s hiddenness resonance, without replacing the verse’s direct meaning of “true.”
THE PATTERN
Truth can be spoken and recognized as hidden things come into view.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward parts; and in the sealed place you make me perceive wisdom.But the one who does the truth comes to the light, so that their deeds may be made visible, for they have been worked in God.Therefore, taking off lying, speak truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are limbs of one another.THE THREAD
But the one who does the truth comes to the light, so that their deeds may be made visible, for they have been worked in God.John 3:21 uses ἀλήθεια (alētheia, “truth”), from the same Greek word-family as the “true” in John 4:18. There, truth is spoken and recognized as the woman’s situation comes into view; here, truth is linked to coming into the light.
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