What Does Acts 11:2 Mean?
And when Peter had come up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision divided against 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
And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,THE KEY
At the place named for wholeness, Peter meets a dispute over the boundary of belonging.
THE MEANING
You see a community turn Peter’s arrival into a test of belonging. At Jerusalem, whose name carries wholeness, the dispute exposes the gap between the wholeness named and the boundary being defended. The fracture remains open in the verse.
THE ROOT
διεκρίνοντο
diekrinonto
GROWS FROM
κρίνω (krinō; stem κριν)
To separate, distinguish, decide, or judge.
The word can hold both distinguishing and disputing: the argument takes shape as a line drawn between people. English “contended” can hide that act of sorting.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: To judge, decide, or distinguish.
κρίνω
The same seed behind the verb lets you see the dispute as an act of sorting people into categories.
diakrisis: Distinction or discernment.
διάκρισις
This related word shows how distinguishing can name perception; here, the distinction becomes a contest.
περιτομή
peritomē
GROWS FROM
τέμνω
temnō
To cut.
“Those of the circumcision” names a group through the cutting around that marks it. The identity boundary is carried in the word itself, and it becomes the focus of the dispute.
ALSO GROWS
peritemnō: To cut around; to circumcise.
περιτέμνω
The verb behind the group’s name makes its boundary image visible.
tomē: A cutting or incision.
τομή
This related word keeps the concrete image of a cut inside the category named by “circumcision.”
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or intact.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name Yerushalayim (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Yerushalayim) carries shalom (שָׁלוֹם, shalom; wholeness), and its dual ending evokes two wholenesses. The verse places a dispute over a boundary inside a name of wholeness, leaving the fracture exposed.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness carried in the city’s name, set against the dispute unfolding there.
shalem: Whole, complete, intact.
שָׁלֵם
This related form makes the contrast between wholeness and the defended boundary plain.
THE PATTERN
A boundary that defines who belongs becomes the point where wholeness is tested.
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.Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face.For he is our wholeness, the one who made both one and loosed the middle wall of the fence.THE THREAD
And made no separation between us and them, purifying their hearts through trust.The verb translated “contended” here and “put no difference” there is διακρίνω (diakrinō; to distinguish). The same root moves from a human dispute over distinction to the statement that God makes none between them.
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