What does "the Word... dwelt among us" mean (eskenosen)?
Eskēnōsen (ἐσκήνωσεν), in John 1:14, means "pitched his tent" or "tabernacled." "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John chose the tabernacle word: God moved into a tent of human flesh.
What the text states
The verb is built on skēnē, tent, the same word the Greek Old Testament uses for the tabernacle. John is saying the Word did what the tabernacle pictured: God came to dwell in the middle of His people, not in a temple on a height, but in a tent among the camp. And the next clause confirms it: “we beheld his glory,” the glory that filled the tabernacle now seen in a Man. The incarnation is the tabernacle made flesh.
Go deeper
Checked 2026-09-29 by Darren. 45 Scripture citations verified against the KJV rows. Every Strong's number in the wave-3 notes resolved against our own strongs_greek / strongs_hebrew and the lemma matched the form in the file. Wave 3. 45 quoted fragments table-passed against the verses table, all pass. 21 Greek and 3 Hebrew Strong's entries cross-checked against strongs_greek (5,523 rows) and strongs_hebrew (8,674). Three notes, none a form mismatch: (1) G2434 hilasmos is glossed in our table as 'atonement... an expiator', usage 'propitiation', so Strong's own wording is softer than the answer's 'not merely expiation'; Thayer and BDAG carry the propitiation sense and the KJV renders it so. (2) G728 is spelled arrhabon in our table (double rho) against the file's arrabon; the same word, a transliteration convention. (3) our table derives skenoo (G4637) from skenos (G4636), while the answer says it is built on skene (G4633); the three are cognate and skene is the LXX's tabernacle word. One reference in the wave-3 verification notes did not exist: Rev 22:24 (Revelation 22 ends at verse 21). Ruled by Darren 2026-09-29 a typo for Rev 22:17 and corrected in the source file. The hilasmos gloss discrepancy was ruled the same day: the answer stands and is not softened.
wsb.bible/answers/eskenosen