What Does Acts 10:48 Mean?
And he commanded them to be immersed in the nature of the Lord. Then they asked him to remain for certain days.
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 them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.THE KEY
Immersion in the Lord’s name brings people into his nature, and the request for Peter to stay shows that belonging opening into shared time.
THE MEANING
The verse holds belonging and continued presence together: the Lord’s name is spoken over people in immersion, and Peter is asked to remain for days. Entry into this shared identity opens into time together rather than ending at the water.
THE ROOT
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνομα-
Name; that by which someone is known or identified.
The Greek word for “name” can carry a person’s identity and authority. Here, immersion takes place in the Lord’s name: the phrase points to belonging within the Lord’s nature, not only to speaking a title.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name or mention.
ὀνομάζω
This verb shows the same name-root in the act of naming someone or something.
onomastos: Named or renowned.
ὀνομαστός
This branch links a name with the identity by which someone is known.
βαπτισθῆναι
baptisthēnai
GROWS FROM
βαπ-
To dip or immerse.
“be baptized” in this verse is baptisthēnai. The Greek verb’s physical sense is immersion. The verse presents people as being immersed in the Lord’s name, joining the language of water with the language of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
baptō: To dip or plunge.
βάπτω
This related verb preserves the concrete movement beneath the English word “baptized.”
baptisma: An immersion.
βάπτισμα
The noun names the act itself, keeping the image of being immersed present.
THE PATTERN
Immersion marks entry into a shared identity that continues as a life together.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them into the nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Set-Apart Breath.And all were immersed into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea.For in one breath we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether servants or free, and we were all given to drink one breath.THE THREAD
For in one breath we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether servants or free, and we were all given to drink one breath.The same Greek verb, βαπτίζω (baptizō), means to immerse, and here it carries people into one body. That shared belonging opens Acts 10:48 further: immersion in the Lord’s name connects people to a life held in common.
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