What Does Acts 12:4 Mean?
And when he had taken hold of him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to lead him up before the people.
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 he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.THE KEY
The Greek word for prison belongs to the same guarding family as the act of keeping Peter, so confinement is written as custody made into a place.
THE MEANING
A person is seized, confined, assigned to soldiers, and held until a planned public presentation. Here, being kept means military custody, and the verse leaves the outcome of that presentation unstated. The pressure lies in a life held under guard while its captor plans the next handover.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being kept does not itself mean being cared for: here the keeping is armed confinement in service of a ruler’s public plan.
THE ROOT
φυλακήν
phylakēn
GROWS FROM
φυλακ-
φυλακ- (phylak-, guard or keep watch).
The Greek noun φυλακή (phylakē, prison) belongs to the same word family as φυλάσσειν (phylassein, to guard or keep), the verb used for the soldiers’ duty in this verse. The place of confinement and the act of guarding echo each other: the prison is custody made into a place.
ALSO GROWS
phylakizō: to imprison
φυλακίζω
This verb shares the φυλακ- root and names the act of placing someone into guarded confinement.
phylax: guard, watchman
φύλαξ
The guard shares the prison’s root, linking the person who watches to the place where someone is held.
פֶּסַח
pesaḥ
GROWS FROM
פסח
פסח (p-s-ḥ), pass over or spare.
“the Passover” in this verse is pesaḥ. The Greek text uses πάσχα (pascha, Passover), which the KJV renders “Easter.” The Hebrew name פֶּסַח (pesaḥ, Passover) is linked to פָּסַח (pāsaḥ, pass over or spare), so the timing carries the language of passing over even as Peter remains confined.
ALSO GROWS
pāsaḥ: to pass over, spare
פָּסַח
This verb shares the root’s consonants and gives the Passover name its language of passing over.
pesaḥ: Passover
פֶּסַח
This noun shares the same root and names the observance represented by Greek πάσχα (pascha, Passover) in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Guarding becomes protection or confinement according to whose purpose the watch serves.
And the LORD God took Adam and set him down in the garden of Eden, to serve it and to guard it.And in that same country there were shepherds living out in the open field, keeping the watches of the night over their flock.And when they had laid many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the keeper of the bonds to keep them securely.THE THREAD
And when they had laid many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the keeper of the bonds to keep them securely.Acts 16:23 repeats the prison-and-guard family, pairing φυλακή (phylakē, prison) with φυλάσσω (phylassō, guard or keep). The same vocabulary makes the custody structure in Acts 12 visible again: people are kept under guard as part of their confinement.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us