What Does John 6:23 Mean?
Yet other boats had come from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten bread, after the Lord had given thanks.
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
(Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)THE KEY
The place is remembered by the conjunction of bread and thanks: the meal is marked as received favor.
THE MEANING
This verse holds bread and gratitude together: the place is remembered as where bread is eaten after Jesus gives thanks. The verb for thanks carries the language of favor, so provision appears as something received with acknowledgment, not merely counted.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that food is only a resource detached from gratitude; here, the meal is named alongside thanks.
THE ROOT
εὐχαριστήσαντος
eucharistēsantos
GROWS FROM
χαρ (char), in χάρις (charis)
Favor or graciousness; in this verb, giving thanks.
“given thanks” in this verse is eucharistēsantos. The Greek verb for giving thanks holds χάρις (charis), meaning favor, within it. The meal is thus remembered as food received with gratitude, with the language of favor present inside the act of thanks.
ALSO GROWS
charis: Favor; also thanks in some contexts.
χάρις
This is the favor-language carried inside the verse’s word for giving thanks.
eucharistia: Thanksgiving.
εὐχαριστία
This noun shares the same word family and names the response to received provision.
charisma: A gracious gift.
χάρισμα
This related word shows how the same family can name what is given as well as gratitude for what is received.
THE PATTERN
Food is received as provision when gratitude accompanies the meal.
When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he handed them out to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were reclining, and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.And it happened, as he lay down at table with them, that he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and handed it to them.THE THREAD
For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be thrown away when it is taken with thanksgiving.The word translated “thanksgiving” belongs to the same εὐχαριστ- (eucharist-) word family as the verb “given thanks” here, both carrying χάρις (charis), favor. That shared root opens the meal as provision received with gratitude.
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