What Does John 5:29 Mean?
And will come out, those who did good unto a rising of life, and those who did what is worthless unto a rising of sifting.
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
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.THE KEY
The hidden hinge is that all come forth, yet resurrection opens into two sharply different outcomes: life and judgment.
THE MEANING
Death does not close your future: you come forth, and what you have done is not treated as weightless. The verse holds two outcomes in view, life and judgment, without collapsing them into one.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that death makes a life’s actions disappear without consequence.
THE ROOT
ἀνάστασιν
anastasin
GROWS FROM
στα
sta
Stand; take a standing position.
“rising” in this verse is anastasin. The word rendered “resurrection” carries the sense of standing up. The verse first names a coming forth into standing presence, then distinguishes what follows.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: Rise or stand up.
ἀνίστημι
This verb shares the standing stem and makes the movement within “resurrection” audible.
stasis: A standing or position.
στάσις
It keeps the idea of standing within the word family, beneath the English word “resurrection.”
κρίσεως
kriseōs
GROWS FROM
κριν
krin
Judge, decide, or distinguish.
“sifting” in this verse is kriseōs. The Greek word rendered “damnation” is κρίσεως (kriseōs), “judgment.” Its word family includes judging and the verdict itself, giving this outcome a judicial shape while preserving the verse’s severity.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: Judge or decide.
κρίνω
This verb reveals the act carried in the noun for judgment.
kritēs: A judge.
κριτής
This branch names the one who carries out the judgment described in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, the dead are raised or brought before God into distinct outcomes, not a single undifferentiated end.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground shall awake, some to the life of the ages, and some to exposure and contempt for the ages.And I hold my hope toward God, which they themselves also take hold of, that there shall be a standing up of the dead, both of the aligned and of the unaligned.And I see the dead, small and great, standing before God. The scrolls are opened, and another scroll is opened, which is the book of life. The dead are judged by the things written in the scrolls, according to their works.THE THREAD
Jesus said to her, I am the rising, and the life. Whoever leans their weight into me, even if they die, will live.The same Greek noun, ἀνάστασις (anastasis), “a standing up,” appears here as “the resurrection.” John 5:29 shows that rising opens into life or judgment; here resurrection and life meet in Jesus’ own claim.
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