What Does Acts 10:34 Mean?
Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face.
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
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:THE KEY
The Greek words behind “perceive” and “respecter” share a root: Peter grasps that God does not take a person’s face as a claim to favor.
THE MEANING
The reader meets a God whose regard is not tilted by a person’s visible identity or standing. Peter grasps that no face gives one person greater claim to God’s favor than another.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a more favored identity or higher standing earns more of God’s regard dissolves here.
THE ROOT
καταλαμβάνομαι
katalambanomai
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
lambanō
To take or receive; figuratively, to grasp or comprehend.
“have laid hold of” in this verse is katalambanomai. The Greek word for “I perceive” carries the sense of grasping something. The word translated “respecter” comes from the same receive-and-take family, so Peter grasps that God does not receive people according to their faces.
ALSO GROWS
prosōpolēmptēs: Face-receiver; one who shows partiality.
προσωπολήμπτης
This is the word Acts uses for the posture Peter grasps: God does not receive a face as grounds for preference.
epilambanomai: Take hold of, seize.
ἐπιλαμβάνομαι
It keeps the root’s concrete sense visible: grasping mentally grows from the language of taking hold.
paralambanō: Receive or take along.
παραλαμβάνω
The same root can describe receiving someone into company; here, the verse reveals that a person’s face does not decide who receives God’s favor.
προσωπολήμπτης
prosōpolēmptēs
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω (lambanō), joined with πρόσωπον (prosōpon)
λαμβάνω (lambanō) means to take or receive; πρόσωπον (prosōpon) means face or visible presence. Together they form the image of receiving a face, the basis of the idiom for showing partiality.
“have laid hold of” in this verse is prosōpolēmptēs. The Greek compound gives “respecter of persons” a concrete image: receiving or taking account of a face. English can make the phrase sound like ordinary regard, while the root exposes the question underneath it, whether visible identity becomes grounds for preference.
ALSO GROWS
katalambanomai: Grasp or comprehend.
καταλαμβάνομαι
This is Peter’s “I perceive,” sharing the same receive-and-take family within the verse.
paralambanō: Receive or take along.
παραλαμβάνω
It shows the root can describe receiving someone; Acts denies that a person’s face determines God’s regard.
THE PATTERN
God’s judgment and regard are not tilted by a person’s face, rank, or wealth.
For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, the awe-inspiring, who does not lift up the face of any and does not take a bribe.For there is no partiality with God.My brothers, do not hold the trust of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Lord of weight, by receiving faces.THE THREAD
My brothers, do not hold the trust of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Lord of weight, by receiving faces.James uses the same “respect of persons” wording and brings its logic into human relationships. Acts reveals that God does not receive a face as grounds for preference; James shows how the same partiality appears when people rank one another.
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