What Does John 5:17 Mean in the King James?
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
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 Father’s work reaches “until now,” and Jesus names his own work as part of that living activity.
THE MEANING
The Father is at work up to this very moment, and Jesus is at work in that same present. The verse brings divine action into the reader’s now: life is not sustained by a finished past alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s work belongs only to a finished past: the Father works “hitherto,” and Jesus works now.
THE ROOT
ἐργάζεται
ergazetai
GROWS FROM
ἐργ- (erg-), from ἔργον (ergon)
To do or labor; the activity or deed itself.
“worketh” in this verse is ergazetai. English can make “work” sound like a bounded task. The Greek form is present tense, and its erg- word family holds both the act of working and the deed produced; “hitherto” brings that activity right up to now. Jesus places his own work alongside the Father’s ongoing work.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: Work, deed, action.
ἔργον
The related noun shows that work includes both the ongoing activity and what that activity does.
synergos: Co-worker, fellow worker.
συνεργός
The shared erg- root lets work carry a sense of joined activity, echoing the Father and Jesus named together here.
energeia: Working, activity, operation.
ἐνέργεια
This branch keeps the focus on active operation, not merely a task that has already been completed.
πατήρ
patēr
GROWS FROM
πατρ-
patr-
Father as source and progenitor.
Greek father-language branches into lineage and homeland, joining origin with belonging. Here, “My Father” names the source of the work Jesus says continues now, holding origin and action together.
ALSO GROWS
patria: Family, lineage.
πατριά
This branch carries fatherhood into the line of people who share an origin.
patris: Homeland, native land.
πατρίς
This branch connects a source to the place and belonging associated with it.
THE PATTERN
The Creator’s work continues as the renewal and sustaining of life.
Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;THE THREAD
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.Here Jesus makes the relation in John 5:17 explicit: the Father’s work is active in him, and the deeds he does are named as the Father’s. Both verses use the ἐργ- (erg-) word family for working and deeds, joining a shared root with a shared source.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us