What Does Acts 13:26 Mean?
Men and brothers, children of Abraham's kin, and whoever among you stands in awe of God, to you the word of this deliverance has been sent.
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
Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.THE KEY
Deliverance is not merely described here; it is dispatched to you.
THE MEANING
The word of deliverance arrives addressed to you now. Abraham (אַבְרָהָם, Avraham, “father of a multitude”) names the lineage, and the verse also includes whoever among you stands in awe of God. The message is sent to its hearers, reaching beyond inherited identity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the word of deliverance belongs only to Abraham’s descendants: the verse also addresses “whosoever among you” who reveres God.
THE ROOT
ἐξαπεστάλη
exapestalē
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω
apostellō
Send out; dispatch toward someone.
The verse’s Greek verb belongs to the family behind “apostle,” a messenger who is sent. Deliverance reaches its hearers as something dispatched toward them, not as a distant idea.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: A person sent out as a messenger.
ἀπόστολος
The shared word family makes the sending of the message and the sent messenger part of one movement.
apostolē: A sending or commission.
ἀποστολή
The word of deliverance arrives through an act of sending; its reach is part of what the verse describes.
σωτηρία
sōtēria
GROWS FROM
σῴζω
sōzō
Deliverance; rescue from danger or loss.
The “salvation” named here is deliverance carried in a message and sent to its hearers. The word’s Greek family holds together the act of delivering and the one who delivers.
ALSO GROWS
sōzō: To rescue or bring someone to safety.
σῴζω
The related verb makes the deliverance in the verse something that reaches people, not only a teaching about rescue.
sōtēr: One who delivers or rescues.
σωτήρ
This branch connects the delivered message with the one who brings deliverance.
γένος
genos
GROWS FROM
γεν-
gen-
Birth, kind, family, or lineage.
“kin” in this verse is genos. The verse speaks into a lineage formed through birth, then widens its address to whoever among the hearers reveres God. The message reaches both inherited belonging and those beyond it.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: A beginning, birth, or origin.
γένεσις
It echoes the verse’s language of descent and where a lineage begins.
gennaō: To beget or give birth.
γεννάω
This branch makes the family language concrete: the verse names people through generation while also addressing a wider circle.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance reaches people through a word sent outward to them.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who makes wholeness heard, who brings good news of good, who makes deliverance heard, who says to Zion, Your God governs.And how will they herald unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!THE THREAD
And how will they herald unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!Acts uses ἐξαπεστάλη (exapestalē, “was sent out”), from the same Greek sending family as Romans’ ἀποστέλλω (apostellō, “to send out”). The word of deliverance reaches its hearers through the very act of sending.
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