What Does John 16:13 Mean in the King James?
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The guide who leads you into truth is breath moving along a way, speaking what it first receives and opening what is ahead.
THE MEANING
The breath of truth leads you into truth by what it receives and speaks; its guidance begins in listening, not self-display. What is ahead becomes visible as you are led, so the future is disclosed along the way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a trustworthy voice must originate in itself dissolves here: this guide speaks what it receives, then makes what is ahead known.
THE ROOT
ὁδηγήσει
hodēgēsei
GROWS FROM
ὁδός (hodós, way) + ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai, lead)
To lead along a way: ὁδός (hodós) means way or path, and ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai) means lead or go before.
The English “guide” can sound like giving information, but ὁδηγέω (hodēgeō, lead along a way) makes the action directional: you are being led into truth. The verse describes truth as a way entered, not only a fact possessed.
ALSO GROWS
hodós: Way, path
ὁδός
The guidance has direction: it leads you along a way into truth.
hodēgos: Guide, leader
ὁδηγός
This related word keeps the image personal and directional: someone leads along the way.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
To breathe or blow; πνεῦμα (pneuma) carries the sense of breath, also wind, and is rendered “Spirit” here.
The word translated “Spirit” belongs to the word-family of breathing and breath. English keeps a separate, abstract label where Greek also carries the motion of breath and wind; here that breath hears, speaks, and makes known.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: Breathe, blow
πνέω
The verb at the root gives the verse’s “Spirit” a sense of moving breath.
pnoē: Breath
πνοή
This related noun makes the breath-sense concrete, as in Acts 2:2, where a sound comes like a rushing mighty wind.
ἀλήθειας
alētheias
GROWS FROM
λήθη (lēthē, oblivion or forgetfulness) / λανθάνω (lanthanō, remain hidden)
ἀλήθεια (alētheia, truth) is traditionally connected with λήθη (lēthē, oblivion) and λανθάνω (lanthanō, remain hidden), suggesting what is not hidden; the word itself means truth.
Truth carries a traditional echo of what does not remain hidden. That resonance fits the verse’s movement from hearing to speaking to showing what is coming: truth is disclosed, not merely stored as a static fact.
ALSO GROWS
lēthē: Oblivion, forgetfulness
λήθη
Its traditional word-family link gives truth an echo of what is no longer lost to forgetting.
lanthanō: Remain hidden, escape notice
λανθάνω
The guide shows what is coming into view, echoing the contrast between what stays hidden and what is disclosed.
THE PATTERN
Truth leads through received instruction, making the way clear as it is spoken and revealed.
O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.THE THREAD
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.In John 16:13, “guide” is ὁδηγέω (hodēgeō, lead along a way), built around ὁδός (hodós, way), and it leads into ἀλήθεια (alētheia, truth). John 14:6 brings those same words together as “the way” and “the truth,” so guidance into truth is itself shown as a way.
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