What Does Acts 13:41 Mean?
Look, you who look down, and marvel, and vanish, for I work a work in your days, a work you will by no means trust, even should someone recount it 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
Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.THE KEY
The doubled phrase “I work a work” places the unbelievable act already inside your days.
THE MEANING
The warning reaches you in your own days: a work is underway, and its announcement does not guarantee that you trust it. The verse joins astonishment to a hard ending: the despisers are told to wonder, and then to perish. Hearing a declaration and receiving it as true are not the same thing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Clear explanation does not guarantee belief; a person can hear a declaration and still refuse to trust it.
THE ROOT
ἔργον
ergon
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
To do or perform; an act or work.
“work a work” in this verse is ergon. The Greek pairs the noun ἔργον (ergon, “work”) with the verb ἐργάζομαι (ergazomai, “to work”) from the same stem: “a work I am working.” The action is already happening in the addressees’ days, even while they do not trust it.
ALSO GROWS
ergazomai: To work, do, or carry out.
ἐργάζομαι
The verb names the action behind the noun in “I work a work.”
energeia: Working, operation, activity.
ἐνέργεια
This related word keeps the sense of activity at work, underscoring that the verse describes action in progress.
πιστεύσητε
pisteusēte
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust, reliance, or being trustworthy; here, to trust, to lean your full weight on.
“by no means trust” in this verse is pisteusēte. The verb reaches beyond receiving a report as information: it speaks of trusting it. The work can be declared plainly without making trust inevitable.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust or reliance.
πίστις
This related noun names the trust the verse says the hearers will withhold.
pistos: Firm, steady, trustworthy.
πιστός
The related adjective shows the same word family reaching from trusting to steadiness.
ἀφανισθῆτε
aphanisthēte
GROWS FROM
φαν- (phan-), with privative ἀ- (a-)
To appear or become visible; with ἀ- (“un-”), to become unseen or vanish.
“vanish” in this verse is aphanisthēte. The Greek verb can carry the image of vanishing or being made unseen, adding a visual edge to the KJV’s severe “perish.” Astonishment here does not soften the ending: wonder is followed by disappearance.
ALSO GROWS
phainō: To appear, show, or shine.
φαίνω
This branch supplies the root’s sense of appearing, against which the verse’s word for perishing can evoke vanishing.
aphanēs: Unseen or not apparent.
ἀφανής
This related form makes the hidden image in the verb visible: becoming unseen.
THE PATTERN
A work of God can stand announced or before people without becoming believable to them.
Therefore, behold, I will add again to do a wonder among this people, even a wonder and a marvel; for the wisdom of their wise ones will lose its way, and the discernment of their discerning ones will be hidden.But though he had done so many signs before them, they did not lean their weight on him.THE THREAD
Look among the nations, and gaze, and be stunned. For I will work a work in your days that you will not lean your weight on, though it is told you.Acts carries forward Habakkuk’s paired-work language: the work is being done in the hearers’ days, yet remains unbelievable even when declared. The Greek noun ἔργον (ergon, “work”) and verb ἐργάζομαι (ergazomai, “to work”) share the ἐργ- stem, so the repetition binds the deed to its doing.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us