What Does Acts 12:20 Mean?
Now Herod was fighting with rage against them of Tyre and Sidon. But they came to him with one passion, and having won over Blastus, the keeper of the king's bedchamber, they asked for wholeness, because their land was fed by the king's land.
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 Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king’s chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king’s country.THE KEY
The Greek words for Herod’s anger and the cities’ “one accord” share the language of heat and passion: one turns toward conflict, the other toward peace.
THE MEANING
The scene holds anger and the pursuit of peace together: Tyre and Sidon unite to ask for peace while Herod is angry with them. Their country receives nourishment from the king’s country, so material dependence shapes their shared approach. A trusted intermediary gives them access, while the imbalance of power remains visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Peace does not always mean hostility has vanished; here, it is sought while anger remains and livelihoods depend on the other side.
THE ROOT
θυμομαχῶν
thumomachōn
GROWS FROM
θυμός (thymos) + μάχομαι (machomai)
To contend in heated anger; to be angry with.
The verb translated “highly displeased” is θυμομαχέω (thumomacheō), to contend in anger. “With one accord” is ὁμοθυμαδόν (homothymadon), literally carrying the sense of one shared passion; it contains the same θυμός (thymos, heat or passion). English separates Herod’s anger from the cities’ united impulse, while the Greek links them through the language of heat, and the cities direct their shared impulse toward peace because their livelihood depends on the king’s country.
ALSO GROWS
thymos: Heat, anger, or passion.
θυμός
This is the shared element in both Herod’s angry contention and the cities’ united impulse.
homothymadon: With one passion; with one accord.
ὁμοθυμαδόν
It uses the same θυμός (thymos, heat or passion) element, showing how a shared impulse gathers the cities into a common approach.
THE PATTERN
Dependence or a shared aim can gather people into coordinated action.
For if they fall, the one raises up the one joined to him. But woe to the one who falls with no second to gird him.And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he had spoken to him, and there was wholeness between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them cut a covenant.These all held fast with one passion in prayer and pleading, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.THE THREAD
And when they heard this, they lifted up their voice to God with one passion and said, "Master, you are God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them."“With one accord” is ὁμοθυμαδόν (homothymadon), the same Greek word used in Acts 12:20. In one verse, shared passion gathers people to seek political peace; here, it gathers them to speak together to God.
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