What Does John 16:20 Mean in the King James?
Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
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 verse’s hidden hinge is that the sorrow you carry becomes joy.
THE MEANING
When you grieve while the world celebrates, both realities are named without one canceling the other. The sorrow you carry is not the final form it takes; it becomes joy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that grief proves joy is gone for good.
THE ROOT
χαρήσεται
charēsetai
GROWS FROM
χαίρω (chairō; stem χαιρ-/χαρ-)
To rejoice, be glad.
“rejoice / joy” in this verse is charēsetai. The same Greek word family names the world’s rejoicing and the joy your sorrow becomes. English gives one a verb and the other a noun, while Greek keeps both within the same movement of rejoicing.
ALSO GROWS
charēsetai: Will rejoice
χαρήσεται
This names the world’s rejoicing in the verse, from the same family as the joy your sorrow becomes.
chara: Joy
χαρά
This names the outcome in the same word family, joining outward rejoicing and the joy emerging from sorrow.
γενήσεται
genēsetai
GROWS FROM
γίνομαι (ginomai; γιν-/γεν-)
To become, come to be, happen.
“turned into” in this verse is genēsetai. The Greek verb says that sorrow will become joy: grief changes into a new state. The next verse pictures this change through labor and birth, an image of what comes forth through the sorrow.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: Origin, birth, coming into being
γένεσις
It carries the same sense of something coming to be, echoing sorrow’s becoming joy.
genos: Kind, offspring, family
γένος
It belongs to the same coming-into-being word family, opening the birth image that follows in the passage.
THE PATTERN
Grief can be the passage through which joy arrives, without the grief being denied.
For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.THE THREAD
And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.The same χαίρω/χαρά word family returns in “your heart shall rejoice” and “your joy.” The next verse carries the turn further: the joy that meets sorrow is not taken away.
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