What Does Mark 10:17 Mean?
As he went out on the way, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit the life of the ages?
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
And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?THE KEY
He asks what he must do to receive life, yet names that life as an inheritance.
THE MEANING
Your question about life can carry that same pull: what must you accomplish to secure it? The verse holds two pictures together: he asks what to do, yet calls it the life of the age as an inheritance. The tension remains open here.
THE ROOT
κληρονομήσω
klēronomēsō
GROWS FROM
κληρονομ- (from κλῆρος, klēros, “lot or share,” and νέμω, nemō, “allot or distribute”)
To receive or possess a share as an heir.
“inherit” in this verse is klēronomēsō. He asks what he can do, but the verb he uses for the outcome describes receiving an allotted share. The wording holds action and inheritance together without resolving their tension.
ALSO GROWS
klēronomia: inheritance
κληρονομία
The noun names the share he hopes to receive.
klēronomos: heir
κληρονόμος
The heir is defined by receiving the share, which deepens the question of what can be done to obtain it.
αἰώνιον
aiōnion
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age, era, or span of time.
“life of the ages” in this verse is aiōnion. The adjective grows from αἰών (aiōn), “age,” so the phrase can be heard as “life of the age.” “Eternal” can suggest duration alone; the Greek also names the age to which this life belongs.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: age or era
αἰών
This is the noun beneath the adjective translated “eternal.”
aiōnes: ages
αἰῶνες
The plural form keeps the phrase within the Greek language of ages and makes “life of the ages” audible.
ποιήσω
poiēsō
GROWS FROM
ποιέω
poieō
To do, make, or bring about.
“do” in this verse is poiēsō. The question uses a verb that can mean doing or making. Beside “inherit,” it sets an action sought beside a share received, sharpening the tension in the question.
ALSO GROWS
poiēma: something made; a work
ποίημα
This noun shows the making sense carried by the same word family.
poiētēs: maker or doer
ποιητής
This word names the one who acts, keeping the focus on the questioner’s desire to know what action is required.
THE PATTERN
God’s promised future is described as an inheritance, a share received, not simply as an achievement.
But the bowed ones will inherit the land, and they will soften themselves in the abundance of wholeness.For if the inheritance comes out of instruction, it is no longer out of promise, but God has given it to Abraham by favor, through promise.That, aligned by his favor, we would become heirs according to the hope of the life of the ages.THE THREAD
That, aligned by his favor, we would become heirs according to the hope of the life of the ages.Titus places heirs beside the hope of eternal life, bringing together the same ideas Mark’s question holds in tension. “Heirs” translates κληρονόμοι (klēronomoi), from the same word family as “inherit” in Mark.
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