What Does Acts 1:26 Mean?
And they cast their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven sent ones.
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 they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.THE KEY
The lot selects Matthias, but the deeper change is that he is counted together with the eleven.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a place becoming clear through both selection and recognition: the lot falls on Matthias, and he is numbered among the apostles. Belonging here has a place in the shared number; it is made visible in the whole.
THE ROOT
συγκατεψηφίσθη
synkatepsēphisthē
GROWS FROM
ψηφ-
psēph-
Pebble; the stem is associated with counting or reckoning by pebbles.
“counted” in this verse is synkatepsēphisthē. The Greek verb means to count someone together with others. English can make “numbered” sound like a roster entry, while the Greek carries the image of counting Matthias into the group.
ALSO GROWS
psēphos: Pebble; ballot
ψῆφος
This noun shares the pebble stem behind the counting image in “numbered.”
psēphizō: Count, calculate, reckon
ψηφίζω
This related verb uses the same stem for the act of counting.
κλῆρος
klēros
GROWS FROM
κληρ-
klēr-
Lot; an allotted share or portion.
The same Greek noun can mean a lot and an assigned portion, while its word family also names inheritance and heirship. The verse therefore carries both the selection by lot and the image of a place allotted within the larger company.
ALSO GROWS
klēronomia: Inheritance
κληρονομία
This related word names a portion received as an inheritance.
klēronomos: Heir
κληρονόμος
This word names the person who receives an allotted inheritance.
THE PATTERN
A shared whole takes shape as people are assigned or recognized within it.
Only by the cast stones shall the land be divided. According to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.Then those who gladly took his word in were immersed, and that day about three thousand living souls were added to them.But now God has set the limbs, each one of them, in the body, as he willed.THE THREAD
For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it?The verb translated “counteth” is ψηφίζω (psēphizō), from the same ψηφ- stem found in Acts’ “was numbered.” Luke uses counting to assess what a building requires; Acts uses the same word family as Matthias is counted into the apostolic company.
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