What Does Acts 13:48 Mean?
And when the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and gave weight to the word of the Lord, and as many as had been arranged for the life of the ages trusted.
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 when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.THE KEY
The hidden sequence is startling: trust appears after the hearers are already set toward the life of the ages.
THE MEANING
Your hearing can meet the word with gladness, and its worth becomes visible in your praise. Trust is the response of those set toward the life of the ages, though the verse leaves the manner of that setting unstated.
THE ROOT
τεταγμένοι
tetagmenoi
GROWS FROM
τάσσω
tassō
To arrange, set in order, assign, or appoint.
The Greek participle is perfect passive: the hearers are in a state of having been set in order toward life before “believed” names their response. This word family also yields words for order and an arranged body, giving the line a picture of trust arising within a larger ordering; the verse leaves that ordering’s manner unstated.
ALSO GROWS
taxis: Order, arrangement, rank.
τάξις
It carries the sense of placement within an order that also inhabits “ordained.”
tagma: Something arranged; an ordered body or cohort.
τάγμα
It gives “appointed” a concrete sense of placement within a larger arrangement.
ἐπίστευσαν
episteusan
GROWS FROM
πιστεύω
pisteuō
To trust, rely on, or entrust oneself.
“trusted” in this verse is episteusan. The verb carries the sense of trust and reliance, so belief here has the texture of placing one’s weight on what is heard. The verse’s last movement is reception ripening into trust.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust, confidence, faith.
πίστις
This noun shares the same word family and brings the quality of reliance into view.
pistos: Trustworthy, reliable, faithful.
πιστός
The related adjective shows the family’s connection between trusting and what can be relied upon.
αἰώνιον
aiōnion
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age, era, or span of time; αἰώνιος describes what belongs to or endures through an age.
The adjective grows from the word for an age, opening the familiar phrase “eternal life” as “life of the ages.” The time-language carries a sense of belonging to an age as well as enduring, so the phrase holds more than a bare notion of endless duration.
ALSO GROWS
aiōnes: Ages; the plural of αἰών.
αἰῶνες
The plural makes the phrase’s age-language visible in a way the single English word “eternal” can conceal.
aiōnios: Of an age, age-long, enduring.
αἰώνιος
This adjective is the word family represented by “eternal” in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When the word is heard and received, it becomes joy, praise, and trust.
I leap at your word, like one who finds great plunder.So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.THE THREAD
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of the life of the ages.Acts and John use forms of the same Greek terms: ζωή (zōē, life) and αἰώνιος (aiōnios, of the age, age-long), translated here as “eternal life.” Acts joins that life with hearing and trust; John names Jesus’ words as its very words.
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