What Does John 7:6 Mean?
Then Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
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 Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.THE KEY
The same Greek word for time names both a moment that has not arrived and an opportunity that is always ready.
THE MEANING
A moment may remain unarrived for one person while another’s is continually at hand. The verse holds both conditions together: a time still coming and a time already ready.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that an open moment must be the right moment for everyone dissolves here: availability and arrival are different.
THE ROOT
καιρός
kairos
GROWS FROM
καιρ-
The Greek stem καιρ- (kair-) carries the sense of a fitting moment, season, or opportunity.
The same καιρός (kairos, fitting moment or opportunity) is “not yet come” for Jesus and “alway ready” for the others. Its branches reveal time as an opening that may be awaited or already at hand.
ALSO GROWS
eukairia: opportunity, fitting occasion
εὐκαιρία
Galatians 6:10 uses this word for an opportunity to do good, showing how καιρός can name an opening for action.
eukairos: timely, opportune
εὔκαιρος
Hebrews 4:16 uses this word for help suited to a time of need, linking a fitting moment with what is ready for it.
ἕτοιμος
hetoimos
GROWS FROM
ἑτοιμ-
The Greek stem ἑτοιμ- (hetoim-) means ready or prepared.
“always ready” in this verse is hetoimos. ἕτοιμος (hetoimos, ready) belongs to a family of preparing and being prepared. The contrast is between a καιρός (kairos, fitting moment) that is not yet present and one that stands ready.
ALSO GROWS
hetoimazō: prepare, make ready
ἑτοιμάζω
The verb makes readiness an achieved state of preparation, giving depth to the claim that a time is ready.
hetoimasia: preparation, readiness
ἑτοιμασία
This noun names the condition of being prepared, echoing the verse’s description of the others’ time.
THE PATTERN
A fitting time can be awaited, arrive, or stand open as an opportunity.
To everything there is an appointed time, and a time for every delight under the heavens.And saying, "The season has been filled, and the governance of God has drawn near. Turn, and lean your weight on the good news."So then, while we hold the season, let us work the good toward all, and most of all toward the household of trust.THE THREAD
And saying, "The season has been filled, and the governance of God has drawn near. Turn, and lean your weight on the good news."Mark’s “time” translates the same Greek word, καιρός (kairos, fitting moment), used here. John holds that moment before its arrival; Mark names it fulfilled, showing the same kind of time as something that can be awaited and then arrive.
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