What Does Acts 13:38 Mean?
Let it be known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this one the release of shortcomings is announced to you.
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
Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:THE KEY
The announcement is not that your missing never happened, but that it can be released through this man.
THE MEANING
Release from what you have missed is being announced to you through this man. The verse does not deny the missing; it says it need not remain held over you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that your failures must stay attached to you as a permanent sentence is undone here: release is proclaimed to you.
THE ROOT
ἄφεσις
áphesis
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
To release, let go, or send away.
The word translated “forgiveness” carries the sense of release. Joined to “sins”, what has been missed, the verse announces that the missing can be let go; it does not pretend it never occurred.
ALSO GROWS
aphiénai: To release or let go.
ἀφιέναι
This verb form makes the action inside “forgiveness” visible: something once held can be released.
áphesis: Release, remission.
ἄφεσις
This is the noun used in the verse, presenting release as what is proclaimed to you.
ἁμαρτιῶν
hamartiōn
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss, err, or fail to attain.
“shortcomings” in this verse is hamartiōn. The Greek word carries the sense of a missing or an error. English “sins” can sound like a fixed identity; the root keeps the focus on what has been missed, and on the release announced for it.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb shows the action beneath the noun: the missing is something a person does, not the whole of who they are.
hamártēma: An error or failure.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun names a particular failure, keeping the focus on what can be released.
THE PATTERN
What has been missed is met with a proclaimed release that opens the way out of what holds a person.
The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.In him we have our ransom through his blood, the release of our stumbles, according to the riches of his favor.THE THREAD
The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.The same Greek noun, ἄφεσις (áphesis, release), is rendered “deliverance” here and “forgiveness” in Acts 13:38. The picture of captives being freed opens the verse further: forgiveness is release from what holds a person, not a denial that the missing occurred.
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