What Does Acts 13:10 Mean?
And he said, O full of every bait and all mischief, child of the Slanderer, enemy of all alignment, will you not stop twisting the straight ways of the Lord?
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 said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?THE KEY
The verse names distortion as a turning: crookedness comes from twisting a way that is already straight.
THE MEANING
The verse names deceit as a fullness set against alignment and names its source as the Slanderer. Its central charge is a present act of bending the Lord’s direct way, and its question presses that distortion into the open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A distorted path proves the Lord’s way itself is crooked.
THE ROOT
διαστρέφων
diastrephōn
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
To turn or twist.
“twisting” in this verse is diastrephōn. The verb for perverting grows from the ordinary act of turning: distortion redirects a path. Set beside the Lord’s “straight” ways, it shows the charge is about bending what is already direct.
ALSO GROWS
strephō: Turn or change direction.
στρέφω
This base verb makes the image concrete: the path is distorted by being turned.
apostrephō: Turn away.
ἀποστρέφω
This related verb shows how a turn can redirect someone from a path.
epistrephō: Turn back or return.
ἐπιστρέφω
The same word family can describe a turn toward the way again, illuminating how distortion can be reversed.
εὐθείας
eutheias
GROWS FROM
εὐθύς
Straight or direct.
“right” in this verse is eutheias. The Lord’s ways are described with a word for straightness and directness. That makes the verb “pervert” vivid: the opposition bends a clear direction rather than making the way itself crooked.
ALSO GROWS
euthys: Straight or direct.
εὐθύς
This is the word family behind the description of the Lord’s ways as right.
euthynō: Make straight or direct.
εὐθύνω
This related verb shows straightness as a direction that can be made clear.
δικαιοσύνης
dikaiosynēs
GROWS FROM
δίκη
Right order or justice.
“righteousness” in this verse is dikaiosynēs. The verse calls the adversary an enemy of all alignment, widening the conflict beyond one disputed act. The same word family speaks of what is just and of being set right, so the opposition reaches toward the very ordering that makes a path straight.
ALSO GROWS
dikaios: Just, aligned.
δίκαιος
This related word describes a person or thing in right order.
dikaioō: Set right or justify.
δικαιόω
This verb shows the word family extending from alignment to the act of setting right.
THE PATTERN
The Lord’s way is presented as straight, and distortion is exposed by the crooked turn imposed on it.
A voice calls out in the wilderness, Clear the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a raised road for our God.Whose ways are crooked, and they turn aside in their tracks.And make straight tracks for your feet, so that what limps may not be turned aside, but rather be healed.THE THREAD
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.Luke uses the same Greek word family for straightness, εὐθύς (euthys, “straight” or “direct”), that Acts uses for the Lord’s “right” ways. Acts names the bending of that direction; Luke shows crookedness being brought into straightness.
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