What Does John 6:68 Mean?
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of the life of the ages.
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
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.THE KEY
The life of the ages is carried in Jesus’ spoken words, making “where shall we go?” a question of where life is speaking.
THE MEANING
When every alternative falls silent, the question becomes where life is speaking. Jesus’ words hold the life of the ages: life belonging to God’s age and present in what he says. The verse gives voice to the recognition that this life is found in his words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that life depends on finding a better destination; here, life is recognized in Jesus’ words.
THE ROOT
αἰωνίου
aiōniou
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age, era, or lifetime.
The adjective translated “eternal” grows from the noun for an age. So “the life of the ages” carries the sense of life belonging to the ages, as well as life that endures.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: An age or era.
αἰών
It is the noun beneath the phrase’s adjective, bringing the dimension of an age into “eternal life.”
aiōnios: Pertaining to an age; age-long.
αἰώνιος
This is the adjective used for “eternal,” linking the life Peter names to the ages.
ζωῆς
zōēs
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
To live, to be alive.
The word for life belongs to the same family as words for a living being and for making alive. Here, life is not presented as an abstract possession: it is the life carried in Jesus’ utterances.
ALSO GROWS
zōon: A living being.
ζῷον
It shows this word-family describing life embodied in a living creature.
zōopoieō: To make alive, give life.
ζωοποιέω
It shows the same life-family in the action of bringing life forth.
ῥήματα
rhēmata
GROWS FROM
ῥέω
rheō
To flow, stream, or speak.
The “words” here are utterances: things spoken. The underlying word-family also carries the sense of flowing speech, so the life Peter names is bound to what comes forth from Jesus’ mouth.
ALSO GROWS
rheō: To flow, stream, or speak.
ῥέω
It supplies the word-family’s sense of something flowing forth.
rhēma: An utterance, a thing spoken.
ῥῆμα
It is the singular form of Peter’s word for the spoken words Jesus has.
THE PATTERN
God’s spoken word sustains and awakens life in the one who receives it.
And he bent you low, and made you hunger, and fed you with manna, which you had never perceived, nor had your fathers, so that he might make you perceive that humankind does not live by bread alone, but by every word that goes out from the mouth of the LORD does humankind live.This is my comfort in my bowing low, for your word has brought me to life.It is the breath that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are breath, and they are life.THE THREAD
It is the breath that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are breath, and they are life.The word translated “words” is the same Greek noun, ῥήματα (rhēmata, utterances), in both verses. John 6:63 names those utterances as life (ζωή, zōē, living life) and spirit (πνεῦμα, pneuma, breath), opening Peter’s phrase into the life carried in Jesus’ speech.
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