What Does Acts 10:46 Mean?
For they heard them speaking in tongues and magnifying God. Then Peter answered,
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
For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,THE KEY
Magnifying God is giving God’s greatness a voice across tongues.
THE MEANING
God’s greatness becomes audible through human voices, including voices that carry other tongues. Hearing comes before answering; praise opens a space in which response can begin.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that praise must arrive in one familiar language or sound to be recognized as praise of God.
THE ROOT
μεγαλυνόντων
megalynontōn
GROWS FROM
μεγαλ-
megal-
great; make great
The verb μεγαλύνω (megalynō) means to make great or extol, from μέγας (megas), “great.” Here praise makes God’s greatness perceptible through human voices, as in Mary’s words, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”
ALSO GROWS
megas: great, large
μέγας
This is the adjective at the heart of the verb: magnifying gives voice to what is great.
megaleia: great deeds, mighty works
μεγαλεῖα
Acts 2:11 uses this word family for the “wonderful works of God,” connecting praise with the telling of God’s mighty acts.
γλώσσαις
glōssais
GROWS FROM
γλωσσ-
glōss-
tongue; language
“speaking in tongues” in this verse is glōssais. The Greek word γλῶσσα (glōssa) names both the tongue in the mouth and a language. It keeps bodily speech and language joined: praise reaches others through actual voices, even when those voices take different linguistic forms.
ALSO GROWS
glōssa: tongue; language
γλῶσσα
The word itself holds the body part and the language together, joining voiced speech with what listeners hear.
heteroglōssos: foreign-tongued; speaking another language
ἑτερόγλωσσος
This compound keeps γλῶσσα inside a word for linguistic difference, illuminating the verse’s many tongues.
THE PATTERN
God’s greatness becomes shareable when praise is voiced together, across tongues and peoples.
O grow the LORD great with me, and let us lift up his name together.Cretes and Arabians, we hear them speak in our tongues the great works of God.THE THREAD
And Mary said, My living soul makes the LORD great.The Greek verb meaning “make great, extol” is the same in both verses. Here many tongues voice God’s greatness; in Luke 1:46 one soul does, showing praise moving through a single voice and through many.
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