What Does Acts 13:25 Mean?
And as John was filling out his run, he said, What do you suppose me to be? I am not. But look, one comes after me, and I am not worthy to loosen the sandal bound beneath his feet.
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 as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.THE KEY
A course reaches its fullness when its witness points beyond himself to the one who comes next.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now of a course brought to its full measure without making its bearer the destination. John says, “I am not he,” and names the one who follows, even as he describes himself as unworthy to loose that one’s shoes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Completion does not mean you must be the one everyone is waiting for. John’s course is complete while he clearly names that he is not that one.
THE ROOT
ἐπλήρου
eplērou
GROWS FROM
πληρ
plēr
fill to the full; bring to completion
The root carries the sense of filling inside “fulfilled”: finishing can mean bringing a course to its full measure. Here, that fullness appears in John’s clear testimony about the one who comes after him.
ALSO GROWS
plērōma: fullness; full measure
πλήρωμα
This branch makes completion feel like a course reaching its full measure, not merely stopping.
plērēs: full; complete
πλήρης
This branch echoes the sense of a course brought to completion.
λῦσαι
lysai
GROWS FROM
λυ
ly
loosen; release
“loosen” in this verse is lysai. The verb belongs to a family of words for loosening and release. English can make the image sound like only the small task of untying a sandal, while the root also carries the wider sense of letting go; John places even that act of service below his worthiness.
ALSO GROWS
lysis: loosening; release
λύσις
This noun shows the broader release carried within the act of loosening.
apolyō: release; dismiss
ἀπολύω
This verb extends the root’s sense from loosening something to releasing someone.
THE PATTERN
A witness completes a calling by directing attention past itself toward what is coming.
A voice calls out in the wilderness, Clear the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a raised road for our God.And he confessed, and did not deny it, but said, "I am not the Anointed One."And Moses, indeed, was steady in all his house, as a servant, for a witness to the things that would be spoken afterward;THE THREAD
John answered, saying to them all, I immerse you in water; but one stronger than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will immerse you in the Set-Apart Breath and in fire.Luke uses the same Greek verb for “unloose” as Acts 13:25. The surrounding words make the contrast sharper: John’s image of loosening the shoes stands beside the greater one’s coming action.
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