What Does Revelation 22:11 Mean?
Let the unaligned still do what is unaligned, and let the soiled still be soiled, and let the aligned still do alignment, and let the set-apart still be set apart.
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
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.THE KEY
The Greek sets doing wrong beside doing righteousness on the same justice-root, showing two continuing ways the same question of right is lived.
THE MEANING
The verse lays paired continuities before you: the one acting unjustly continues in that course, and the one doing righteousness continues in that course; so do the soiling and the being set apart. Its repeated “still” brings your present direction into view at the moment of disclosure. Nothing in the sentence masks either condition.
THE ROOT
ἀδικῶν
adikōn
GROWS FROM
δικ- (dik-), from δίκη (dikē)
Right, justice; the privative prefix in ἀδικῶν marks its absence or violation.
“unaligned” in this verse is adikōn. The first phrase describes the one doing wrong; later, the righteous one is told to do righteousness. Both turn on the same justice-root, so the verse shows two continuing orientations around the same question of right.
ALSO GROWS
dikē: Justice, right, judgment
δίκη
This is the shared base that links the verse’s unjust and righteous terms.
dikaiosynē: Righteousness, justice, alignment
δικαιοσύνη
This is the noun in “do righteousness still,” making the righteous person’s continuing action explicit in Greek.
adikeō: Act unjustly, do wrong
ἀδικέω
This is the verb behind “he that is unjust,” literally the one doing wrong, and it carries the justice-root in a negated form.
ῥυπαρός
rhyparos
GROWS FROM
ῥυπ-
rhyp-
Dirt, filth, or what is soiled.
English can make “filthy” sound like a fixed label, but Greek repeats the dirt-family as adjective and verb: soiled, then “be soiled still.” The repeated word-family makes the continuing condition visible.
ALSO GROWS
rhýpos: Dirt, filth
ῥύπος
The noun gives “filthy” its concrete sense of what is dirty or defiled.
rhypainō: Soil, defile
ῥυπαίνω
This related verb family appears in ῥυπανθήτω (rhypanthētō), “let him be soiled,” echoing the adjective as an ongoing condition.
ἅγιος
hagios
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
hagi-
Set apart, consecrated.
“set-apart” in this verse is hagios. The closing phrase pairs the word for one set apart with a verb meaning to be set apart. Identity and continuing condition appear together, parallel to the preceding clause about what is soiled.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: Set apart, consecrate
ἁγιάζω
The verb family gives the closing clause its sense of being set apart still.
hagiasmos: Setting apart, consecration
ἁγιασμός
This noun names the same set-apart state as a continuing condition.
THE PATTERN
A person’s way becomes visible through the course they continue and the fruit it bears.
For the LORD perceives the way of the aligned, but the way of the wicked loses its way.So every good tree makes good fruit, but the rotten tree makes evil fruit.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
Do not set your limbs as weapons of crookedness unto falling short; but set yourselves beside God, as those living out from the dead, and your limbs as weapons of alignment unto God.Romans uses the same δικ- (dik-, right and justice) word-family in “unrighteousness” and “righteousness,” linking the contrast to what the body’s members serve as instruments. Revelation’s paired continuities and Romans’ paired yieldings share a single axis: the life being lived can enact wrong or right.
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