What Does Acts 10:38 Mean?
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Set-Apart Breath and with power, who went through, doing good and healing all who were pressed down by the Slanderer, for God was with 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
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.THE KEY
The same Greek power-family names both domination and God’s power, while the anointed one turns power toward healing.
THE MEANING
God’s presence is active in the reader’s present: it anoints, breathes, empowers, and moves toward healing. The power pressing a person down is not the only power at work; the verse places it against a power that does good and restores.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being pressed down does not mean God is absent or powerless; the verse shows divine power meeting oppression through healing.
THE ROOT
καταδυναστευομένους
katadynasteuomenous
GROWS FROM
δύναμαι (dynamai), the δύνα- (dyna-) power-family
to be able; to have power or capacity
“pressed down” in this verse is katadynasteuomenous. “Oppressed” belongs to the same power-family as the verse’s word for “power.” The family can describe power used to dominate and power that works for healing, putting two opposed uses of power in view.
ALSO GROWS
dynamis: power, capacity
δύναμις
This is the word translated “power” in the verse, linking God’s power with the force that dominates.
dynasteuō: to rule with power, dominate
δυναστεύω
This is the verb-family behind “oppressed”; its form here describes people held under another’s power.
ἔχρισεν
echrisen
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
to anoint, apply oil
The action of anointing and the title “the anointed one” grow from the same Greek word. The verse presents Jesus’ identity and his empowering as one connected reality.
ALSO GROWS
christos: the anointed one
χριστός
This is the title built from the same root as “anointed,” so the verse’s action names the nature of the one it describes.
chrisma: anointing
χρῖσμα
This noun names the anointing itself, carrying the verse’s action into a thing received.
ἁγίῳ πνεύματι
hagiō pneumati
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
to blow, breathe
The familiar “Ghost” rendering also carries the word’s concrete breath-and-wind sense. The verse places this set-apart Breath alongside anointing and power, as a presence moving with the healing work.
ALSO GROWS
pneuma: breath, wind
πνεῦμα
This is the word translated “Ghost” here, restoring its breath-and-wind sense.
pnoē: breath, breeze, blast
πνοή
This related word keeps the same movement of air audible in the root.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence becomes visible as release and healing for people held under oppression.
And I have come down to snatch them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good and wide land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.The same Greek verb translated “anointed” appears in both verses. Luke shows that the anointing in Acts takes shape as healing, restored sight, and release.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us