all, every, the whole: the complete extent of whatever it modifies, with nothing left out
This is one of the most common words in the New Testament, and it does one job: it reaches for the totality of something. What that totality looks like depends entirely on how the sentence is built.
- With a single thing it can mean the whole of it (the whole city).
- Spread over the members of a group it means each and every one (every person who believes).
- As a plural standing on its own it means all of them or all things (everyone, the whole of creation).
- Paired with an abstract quality it turns up the volume to the fullest degree (with all boldness, in all wisdom).
- In a few settings it means simply any at all.
Greek signals which of these is meant through small grammatical cues: whether the word carries "the," whether the noun is singular or plural, and where the word sits in the phrase. So the word itself is not confusing. A reader can nearly always tell whether it means "every," "all," "whole," "each," or "full" from the surrounding words.
The genuinely hard question this word raises is never what it means but how far it reaches. When a verse says God wants all people saved, or that all things are reconciled through Christ, the word marks a totality but does not, by itself, fix the boundary of that totality. Sometimes it is exhaustive (every single one), sometimes it means people of all sorts without distinction, and sometimes it is a sweeping figure of speech (all Judea went out to him). Deciding which requires reading the whole passage, not just the one word.
Nuances
The scope of "all people" in the statement that God wants all people to be saved.
- contestedIt means every individual human being without exception; God genuinely desires the salvation of all.; I. Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC, 1999); Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus (NICNT, 2006)
- contestedIt means people of all kinds and classes, including Gentiles and rulers, not every individual.; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; George W. Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC, 1992)
- minorityAll individuals will in fact be saved.; Thomas Talbott, The Inescapable Love of God (2014); David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved (2019)
Whether Christ's "all" is co-extensive with Adam's "all" in the Adam and Christ comparison.
- majorityThe comparison is typological, not a count: Adam and Christ head their peoples, and the reach of the second "all" is set by those who receive grace, not by the first "all."; Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT, 2nd ed. 2018); Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans (BECNT)
- minorityThe matched structure requires the two groups to be the same size, so Christ's "all" is as wide as Adam's.; Thomas Talbott, The Inescapable Love of God (2014)
Whether the cosmic reconciliation of all things means universal salvation.
- majorityReconciliation is genuinely cosmic but differentiated: hostile powers are pacified and subdued, while saving benefit is for believers who continue in faith.; Peter T. O'Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC); Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (Pillar)
- minorityThe same "all things" that Christ created is the "all things" reconciled, so the reconciliation is as universal as the creation.; Robin Parry, The Evangelical Universalist