What Does Acts 10:20 Mean?
Stand up therefore, and go down, and go with them without being divided, for I have sent them.
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
Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.THE KEY
“Doubting nothing” carries a second edge: go with them without first drawing a line between who belongs and who does not.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks into the moment when a next step leads toward people who feel unfamiliar or suspect. It places the weight on the sender’s authority and loosens the reflex to divide people before moving toward them. The command is direct: rise, go down, and go with them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The people I would instinctively keep at a distance cannot be part of God’s direction.
THE ROOT
διακρινόμενος
diakrinomenos
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To separate, distinguish, decide, or judge.
“without being divided” in this verse is diakrinomenos. The Greek participle can carry both hesitation and distinction. The English “doubting” conveys uncertainty; the word’s family also reveals the act of drawing a line between people before going with them.
ALSO GROWS
diakrisis: Discernment; distinction.
διάκρισις
This branch shows how the same word family can name the act of distinguishing.
adiakritos: Without partiality; impartial.
ἀδιάκριτος
The absence of distinction can extend beyond private hesitation to how people are received.
ἀπέσταλκα
apestalka
GROWS FROM
στέλλω
stellō
To send or dispatch; with ἀπό (apo), to send away or forth.
The form means “I have sent,” with the sending complete and its result still in force. The people Peter is told to meet arrive within that ongoing commission.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: Messenger; delegate.
ἀπόστολος
A messenger carries the sending into an encounter with others.
apostolē: Sending; commission.
ἀποστολή
This branch names the commission that gives the movement its direction.
THE PATTERN
A sending from God turns movement toward another person into participation in the sender’s purpose.
Now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.Then the Breath said to Philip, Go near, and cling to this chariot.Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.THE THREAD
And the breath told me to go with them, without dividing myself. Moreover these six brethren came with me, and we entered into the man's house.Peter later repeats the same “nothing doubting” instruction, then describes going with the men and entering the house. The root’s double sense of hesitation and distinction becomes a lived crossing: he moves through the door without separating himself from those sent to him.
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