What Does Acts 12:17 Mean?
But he, with a shake of his hand, hushed them and told them how the LORD had brought him out of the prison. And he said, "Go and report these things to James and to the brothers." And he went out and journeyed to another place.
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
But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go shew these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place.THE KEY
The word for “prison” belongs to the language of guarding, while the Lord’s action is to lead Peter out.
THE MEANING
The Lord’s reach enters even places that seem to hold a person fast. Release becomes visible as Peter tells the community how he is led out and sends the news onward. Confinement does not have the final word over a person’s movement or witness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a guarded place has the final claim on a person is undone: the Lord leads Peter out, and his story reaches the community.
THE ROOT
ἐξήγαγεν
exēgagen
GROWS FROM
ἄγω (agō), with ἐξ- (ex-, out)
ἄγω means to lead or bring; ἐξ- marks movement out from a place.
“brought him out” in this verse is exēgagen. The verb carries both movement and direction: Peter is led, and the movement is explicitly out. The Lord does not merely open a boundary; he guides Peter beyond it.
ALSO GROWS
agō: lead, bring
ἄγω
This base verb presents movement as someone being led or brought along.
exagō: lead out, bring out
ἐξάγω
This compound gives the action its direction: Peter is brought out from the prison.
φυλακῆς
phylakēs
GROWS FROM
φυλακ- / φυλασσ- (phylak- / phylass-)
The word family carries the sense of guarding, keeping watch, and holding in custody.
The word translated “prison” belongs to the family of guarding and custody: this is a place defined by keeping someone in. Beside it, “led out” makes the reversal concrete, the guarded person is actively guided beyond the boundary.
ALSO GROWS
phylassō: guard, keep watch
φυλάσσω
The related verb names the guarding behind the prison’s sense of custody.
phylax: guard, keeper
φύλαξ
This branch names the one who guards, echoing the custody built into the word for prison.
THE PATTERN
Release turns a place of confinement into a point of passage: what holds a person does not decide where the story ends.
He brings them out of darkness and the valley of deepest darkness, and tears their bonds apart.So if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free.THE THREAD
But a messenger of the Lord, through the night, opened the doors of the prison and led them out, and said,This verse uses the same Greek word family for prison and the same lead-out verb family. The guarded enclosure again becomes the starting point of being led out.
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