What Does John 6:29 Mean?
Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you lean your full weight into the one he has sent.
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
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.THE KEY
God’s work takes shape in trust that leans its full weight on the one God sends.
THE MEANING
You meet God’s work here as trust in the one God sends. This trust is more than assent at a distance: it rests on the sent one.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that God’s work is a stack of separate deeds you must perform: Jesus names trust in the one God sends as God’s work.
THE ROOT
πιστεύητε εἰς
pisteuēte eis
GROWS FROM
πιστ- (pist-, the πιστεύω / πίστις word family)
Trust placed in someone reliable; to entrust or rely.
“lean your full weight into” in this verse is pisteuēte eis. The Greek word for “believe” belongs to the same family as πίστις (pistis), trust, and πιστός (pistos), trustworthy or steady. English can make belief sound like an opinion; this word carries the sense of placing trust in someone.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust, reliance
πίστις
The related noun names the trust Jesus identifies as God’s work.
pistos: Trustworthy, steady
πιστός
This branch points to the reliability on which trust rests.
ἀπέστειλεν
apesteilen
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω (apostellō), from ἀπό (apo) + στέλλω (stellō)
To send out or dispatch.
The verb presents Jesus as one sent by God, with a source and direction inside the word. The related name for a sent one keeps that relationship visible: the one trusted is also the one God sends.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: A sent one, messenger
ἀπόστολος
This related word names someone defined by being sent, echoing Jesus’ relation to God in the verse.
apostolē: Sending, commission
ἀποστολή
This noun makes the act of sending explicit, keeping the sender and the sent one joined.
THE PATTERN
God’s work reaches people through a sent witness who is received with trust.
And Israel saw the great hand that the LORD did upon the Egyptians, and the people stood in awe of the LORD, and they leaned their weight on the LORD and on his servant Moses.Jesus cried out and said, Whoever leans their weight on me does not lean on me, but on the one who sent me.How then will they call upon him in whom they have not trusted? And how will they trust the one of whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a herald? And how will they herald unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!THE THREAD
For I have given them the words you gave me. They have taken hold of them, and they have known in truth that I came out from you, and they have leaned their full weight on the fact that you sent me.John 17:8 repeats both word families from this verse: they trust (πιστεύω, pisteuō) that God sends (ἀποστέλλω, apostellō) Jesus. It adds that they receive the words, showing trust and sending joined in the same recognition.
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