What Does Acts 12:5 Mean?
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but prayer was stretched out by the assembly toward God for 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
Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.THE KEY
“Without ceasing” carries the image of prayer stretched out with intensity toward God while the person prayed for remains physically confined.
THE MEANING
A person can be held somewhere they cannot leave while care for them continues to reach toward God. Prayer here is sustained, earnest attention, shared by an assembly on another person’s behalf.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that when you cannot reach someone physically, they are beyond care.
THE ROOT
ἐκτενῶς
ektenōs
GROWS FROM
τειν- (tein-, from τείνω, teinō)
stretch, extend
“stretched out” in this verse is ektenōs. The adverb translated “without ceasing” carries the sense of earnest intensity. The image is of prayer extended toward God with force and persistence.
ALSO GROWS
ekteinō: stretch out, extend
ἐκτείνω
This verb from the same root makes the image in the prayer’s intensity concrete: it is extended toward God.
ektenēs: intense, earnest
ἐκτενής
This related adjective shows the quality behind the adverb: the assembly’s prayer is full and focused.
προσευχή
proseuchē
GROWS FROM
εὐχ- (euch-, from εὔχομαι, euchomai)
pray, wish, request; in some forms, vow
The word names a directed prayer or request, and the verse states its direction plainly: unto God. The person confined remains specific within that address, because the assembly prays “for him.”
ALSO GROWS
euchomai: pray, wish, request
εὔχομαι
The verb shows prayer as an act of address, not simply a private feeling.
euchē: prayer, vow
εὐχή
This related noun holds prayer and vow together, showing the word’s weight as an expressed appeal.
ἐκκλησία
ekklēsia
GROWS FROM
καλ-/κλη- (kal-/klē-, from καλέω, kaleō)
call, summon
The Greek word names an assembly of people, not a building. Here the assembly’s shared attention reaches toward God for one person held in prison.
ALSO GROWS
kaleō: call, summon
καλέω
This verb is part of the word’s formation and preserves the sense of people gathered together.
klēsis: calling, summons
κλῆσις
This related noun carries the same call-root and helps show why the verse’s praying church is a gathered community.
THE PATTERN
Prayer remains a shared, directed act even when danger or confinement leaves the person prayed for out of reach.
Now when Daniel perceived that the writing had been inscribed, he went into his house, and with his windows open in his upper room toward Jerusalem, he knelt on his knees three times in the day, and prayed, and extended his hands in thanks before his God, as he had done from before.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."THE THREAD
Having cleansed your living souls in the hearing and response to the truth, through the breath, unto a love of the brothers without a mask, love one another from a clean heart, stretched out.The Greek adverb ἐκτενῶς (ektenōs, earnestly and intensely) appears here too, translated “fervently.” Its use for love reveals the intensity carried by “without ceasing” in Acts: here that same quality names love shared between people.
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