What Does Acts 13:33 Mean?
God filled this promise full for us, their children, by raising Jesus, as it is also written in the second psalm, "You are my son, today I have brought you forth."
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
God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.THE KEY
The verse makes raising and begetting one unveiling: Jesus is brought forward as the Son God names.
THE MEANING
God brings the promised word to fullness by raising Jesus and naming him Son. The phrase “this day” makes that naming present: what is true of Jesus stands disclosed now, as you read.
THE ROOT
γεγέννηκά
gegenneka
GROWS FROM
γεννάω
gennaō
to beget, generate, or give birth
“brought you forth” in this verse is gegenneka. The word carries the image of generation, while “this day” frames it as a present declaration of the Son. English can make “begotten” sound like a distant origin; the root also connects it to a living language of birth and belonging.
ALSO GROWS
gennēma: offspring; what is produced or generated
γέννημα
This branch makes the family image inside “begotten” visible: the word belongs to the language of what comes forth.
anagennaō: to beget anew; to give new birth
ἀναγεννάω
This branch carries the same seed into the language of new birth, showing that generation can name an ongoing reality as well as an origin.
ἀναστήσας
anastēsas
GROWS FROM
ἀνίστημι
anistēmi
to stand up or raise up
The verb can describe bringing someone forward as well as raising someone from the dead. Acts 13:34 uses this same word family and explicitly adds “from the dead,” so the shared root lets the two kinds of raising echo while the surrounding words distinguish them.
ALSO GROWS
anastasis: a rising; resurrection
ἀνάστασις
This branch names the rising that the same root can express, making the resurrection sense audible beneath “raised.”
exanistēmi: to rise up or stand forth
ἐξανίστημι
This related form carries the image of someone rising into view, illuminating how Jesus is brought forward in the verse.
ἐκπεπλήρωκεν
ekpeplērōken
GROWS FROM
πληρόω
plēroō
to fill or make full
“filled full” in this verse is ekpeplērōken. The promise is pictured as reaching fullness, not merely as a line checked off. The root connects fulfillment with fullness, so the raising and naming of Jesus appear as the promise arriving at its full expression.
ALSO GROWS
plērōma: fullness; that which fills
πλήρωμα
This branch makes the root’s image of fullness concrete and clarifies the force of “fulfilled.”
anaplēroō: to fill up or complete
ἀναπληρόω
This related form keeps completion tied to filling, echoing the verse’s picture of the promise brought to fullness.
THE PATTERN
God makes sonship visible by naming the Son in a present act of declaration.
I recount the decree. The LORD says to me, You are my Son; today I have brought you forth.And look, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I have delighted.who was marked out as Son of God in power, according to the Set-Apart Breath, through the rising out of the dead.THE THREAD
Everyone who leans their weight on Jesus as the Anointed One has been born of God, and everyone who loves the one who brought forth loves also the one who has been born of him.The Greek root γεννάω (gennaō), meaning to beget or give birth, appears in Acts as “begotten” and in 1 John as “born,” “begat,” and “begotten.” The shared root opens the verse’s language of sonship into a wider language of birth and belonging.
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