What Does Jude 1:17 Mean?
But you, beloved, remember the words spoken before by the sent ones of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One.
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
But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;THE KEY
Words spoken before are not relics: remembering brings them into the attention of the present.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as beloved and placed in relation to words already spoken by the apostles of Jesus. Those words remain present to your attention now; their earlier speaking does not make them irrelevant to this moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that only a fresh message can matter: words already spoken can still speak to the present.
THE ROOT
μνήσθητε
mnēsthēte
GROWS FROM
μνα-/μνη- (mnā-/mnē-)
Remember, bring to mind, keep in memory.
“remember” in this verse is mnēsthēte. The Greek imperative calls for an active bringing-to-mind. Its word family joins memory with the act of remembering, so the verse shows how words spoken earlier can remain present in your attention.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: Memory or recollection.
μνήμη
The shared word family links remembering with what the mind holds present.
mnēmoneuō: Remember or keep in mind.
μνημονεύω
This related verb makes clear that remembering is an active keeping of something in mind.
anamnēsis: Remembrance or recollection.
ἀνάμνησις
The same memory family appears in the idea of calling something back into present awareness.
ἀποστόλων
apostolōn
GROWS FROM
ἀποστελλ-
apostell-
Send out or dispatch.
“sent ones” in this verse is apostolōn. The apostles are named through the language of being sent. The verse thus connects the remembered words to messengers who carry and deliver them.
ALSO GROWS
apostellō: Send out or dispatch.
ἀποστέλλω
This verb shows the sending contained in the title used for the speakers.
apostolē: A sending, commission, or mission.
ἀποστολή
This related noun reveals the commission behind the messengers whose words remain in view.
THE PATTERN
Remembering keeps present attention connected to words and experience already given.
And you shall remember the whole road the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to bend you low and to test you, to perceive what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.But the One who comes alongside, the Set-Apart Breath, which the Father will send in my nature, that one will teach you all things and will remind you of all that I said to you.That you may remember the words spoken before by the set-apart prophets, and the command of us the sent ones of the Lord and deliverer.THE THREAD
That you may remember the words spoken before by the set-apart prophets, and the command of us the sent ones of the Lord and deliverer.The Greek memory word here belongs to the same μνα-/μνη- family as Jude’s “remember.” Peter’s verse widens the connection by placing both prophetic words and apostolic teaching within present attention.
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