What Does Acts 10:35 Mean?
But in every nation the one who lives in awe of him and works alignment is received by him.
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 in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.THE KEY
God’s welcome crosses national boundaries and meets awe of him in the lived practice of alignment.
THE MEANING
No nation has an exclusive claim on God’s welcome. Across every nation, the person who stands in awe of him and practices alignment is received by him. Belonging is expressed in how a person lives, not in ancestry.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God’s welcome belongs only to people born into the right nation is undone here: the verse says “in every nation.”
THE ROOT
δεκτός
dektos
GROWS FROM
δεκ-/δεχ- (dek-/dech-)
δεκτός (dektos) means “acceptable, welcome”; its word family carries the sense of receiving and welcoming.
The word rendered “accepted” carries the sense of being received as welcome. That makes the verse’s claim relational: people from every nation are welcomed by God as they embody awe and alignment.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: receive; welcome
δέχομαι
This verb shows the receiving sense at the heart of the word family.
apodechomai: welcome; receive gladly
ἀποδέχομαι
This related form makes the sense of welcoming explicit.
δικαιοσύνη
dikaiosyne
GROWS FROM
δικαι- (dikai-), from δίκη (dikē)
δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosyne) means “righteousness” or “justice”; the word family centers on what is right and just, rendered here as alignment.
The word links alignment to justice and rightness, and “worketh” puts that alignment into action. Its scope reaches every nation, making rightness a lived expression rather than a national marker.
ALSO GROWS
dikē: justice; what is right
δίκη
The older form connects righteousness to justice and rightness.
dikaios: just; right
δίκαιος
This related word names the quality that δικαιοσύνη expresses.
ἐργαζόμενος
ergazomenos
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
ἐργάζομαι (ergazomai) means “work, labor, accomplish”; the ἐργ- (erg-) family names work and deed.
“works” in this verse is ergazomenos. The verb joins alignment to action: what is right takes form in what a person does. Its root family makes “worketh righteousness” a concrete expression of lived alignment.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: work; deed
ἔργον
This noun shows the deed-centered meaning shared with “worketh.”
energeō: work; be active
ἐνεργέω
This related verb carries the same work-root into active operation.
THE PATTERN
God’s welcome and regard extend beyond inherited identity to people across boundaries.
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.Them also will I bring to my set-apart mountain, and gladden them in my house of prayer. Their ascending offerings and their sacrifices shall be received with favor upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither servant nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
For not the hearers of instruction are aligned before God, but the makers of instruction will be aligned.“Just” (δίκαιοι, dikaioi, right/aligned) and “shall be justified” (δικαιωθήσονται, dikaiōthēsontai, shall be counted right) share the δικαι- (dikai-) word family with “righteousness” (δικαιοσύνη, dikaiosyne, alignment) here. That shared root joins alignment to what is done, opening “worketh righteousness” as lived action.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us