What Does Acts 10:26 Mean?
But Peter raised him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
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
But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.THE KEY
Peter answers a posture of worship by raising Cornelius into the same human standing he occupies.
THE MEANING
When one person is bowed before another, Peter raises him and speaks from their shared humanity. Reverence does not make Peter more than a man or Cornelius less than one.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that spiritual authority makes one person less human than another or worthy of being bowed to.
THE ROOT
ἀνάστηθι
anastēthi
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
to stand or set upright
“Stand up” in this verse is anastēthi. The command belongs to the same word family as ἀνάστασις (anastasis), meaning rising or resurrection. English makes it sound like a simple posture instruction; the Greek also carries the sense of rising into an upright place.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: to rise or stand up
ἀνίστημι
This related verb joins rising with standing, echoing Peter’s call for Cornelius to rise.
anastasis: rising or resurrection
ἀνάστασις
This noun shows how the same word family can name a rising, not only a change in posture.
ἤγειρεν
ēgeiren
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
to wake or raise
“raised him up” in this verse is ēgeiren. The action translated “took him up” uses a verb that also means to wake or raise. Peter’s raising of Cornelius comes immediately before the command to stand, so the gesture itself enacts the words.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: to wake or raise
ἐγείρω
The verb’s range makes Peter’s action more than a gesture of assistance: he raises Cornelius.
egersis: a rising or resurrection
ἔγερσις
This related noun preserves the raising sense found in Peter’s action.
ἄνθρωπος
anthrōpos
GROWS FROM
ἀνθρωπ-
anthrōp-
human being
“man” in this verse is anthrōpos. Peter’s words place both men within the same human category: he says that he too is a human being. The statement cuts through the distance suggested by Cornelius’s posture without denying Peter’s role in the encounter.
ALSO GROWS
anthrōpinos: human or belonging to a human
ἀνθρώπινος
This related form keeps attention on what Peter and Cornelius share.
anthrōpinōs: in a human way
ἀνθρωπίνως
This related form makes the shared human condition explicit.
THE PATTERN
No human rank or posture makes one person less human before God.
You shall do no crookedness in judgment; you shall not lift up the face of the bowed down, nor adorn the face of the great; but in alignment shall you judge the one beside you.Let me not, I pray you, lift the face of any man, nor give flattering titles to man.Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will be held upright, for God is able to make him stand.THE THREAD
Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will be held upright, for God is able to make him stand.The Greek verb translated “stand” in “make him stand” comes from ἵστημι (histēmi), meaning to stand or set upright, the same word family behind Peter’s command. Acts shows Peter raising Cornelius to his feet; Romans places the power to make a person stand with God.
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