What Does Acts 10:42 Mean?
And he commanded us to proclaim to the people, and to testify that this is the one marked out by God as judge of the living and the dead.
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
And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.THE KEY
Death does not mark the edge of this Judge’s jurisdiction: the one appointed by God judges both the living and the dead.
THE MEANING
The one God appoints as Judge holds authority over the living and the dead. The line between life and death does not mark the limit of that authority.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Death places a person beyond judgment or beyond the reach of God’s authority.
THE ROOT
ὡρισμένος
horisménos
GROWS FROM
ὁρίζω
horízō
To mark out, determine, or appoint.
The word rendered “ordained” comes from a verb for marking out or determining, so the appointment carries the image of being marked out for an office. The verse then places both the living and the dead within this Judge’s remit, across the boundary that seems to divide them.
ALSO GROWS
hórion: A boundary, border, or territory.
ὅριον
This branch makes the boundary-image in “ordained” visible beside the verse’s distinction between living and dead.
horízōn: Horizon; a boundary or limit of view.
ὁρίζων
The horizon is a boundary, while this Judge’s authority extends across the boundary between life and death.
κριτής
kritḗs
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krínō
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
The Judge is not only a title of authority: the Greek word belongs to a family built around distinguishing and deciding. The verse places the living and the dead within the same field of judgment.
ALSO GROWS
krísis: Judgment or a decision.
κρίσις
This branch names the act of judgment that belongs to the Judge in the verse.
kríma: A judgment, decision, or verdict.
κρῖμα
The shared root links the Judge’s role to the verdict that follows discernment.
THE PATTERN
God’s appointed Judge has authority over the whole human field, reaching the living, the dead, and the ends of the earth.
Those who strive with the LORD are shattered; from the heavens he thunders upon them. The LORD judges the edges of the earth, and gives strength to his king, and lifts high the horn of his anointed one.For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.They give account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.THE THREAD
Because he has set a day in which he will judge the settled world in alignment, by the man whom he has marked out, giving all people trust through raising him up from among the dead.Acts 17:31 uses the same Greek word family for the one “ordained” here and the day God “appointed,” and the same family for judging. The resurrection appears in that same sentence as assurance, joining the appointed Judge’s authority to the life-and-death boundary named in Acts 10:42.
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