What Does John 5:32 Mean?
There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the witness he bears about me is true.
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
There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.THE KEY
Jesus’ identity is witnessed beyond his own voice, and the act of witnessing and the testimony itself share one Greek word-family.
THE MEANING
Jesus stands before the reader as one whose identity is testified to by another. He knows this testimony is true: what is true about him is spoken by another and received as knowledge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that testimony about Jesus rests only on Jesus’ own claim; the verse names another witness.
THE ROOT
μαρτυρεῖ
martyrei
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
To testify, to bear witness.
The verb “witnesseth” and the noun “witness” translate forms from the same Greek word-family. The sentence folds the act and its content together: another testifies, and that testimony is true.
ALSO GROWS
martyria: testimony, witness
μαρτυρία
The verse uses this noun for the testimony being borne, joining the witness’s act to what is testified.
martys: witness
μάρτυς
This related noun names the one who bears testimony, keeping the person and the testimony within the same word-family.
martyreō: to bear witness, testify
μαρτυρέω
This is the verb behind “witnesseth,” showing that the verse centers on testimony as an active speaking.
THE PATTERN
Truth is established through testimony that reaches beyond a single voice.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.But if he does not hear you, take along with you one or two more, so that upon the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand.And the Set-Apart Breath also bears witness to us, for after having said before,THE THREAD
You sent to John, and he bore witness to the truth.The next verse repeats the same Greek witness verb and names John as one who bears testimony to the truth. The shared word-family connects the act of witnessing with the truth being testified to.
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