What Does Acts 14:19 Mean?
But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds and stoned Paul, they dragged him outside the city, supposing he had died.
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 there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.THE KEY
Persuasion makes a crowd act as if an assumption were knowledge: they stone Paul, then drag him away supposing he is dead.
THE MEANING
Persuasion turns into bodily violence: stones strike until the person before the crowd appears dead. The crowd then drags him beyond the city, acting on that assumption. The verse shows how quickly a group’s conviction becomes a body’s injury and expulsion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a crowd’s certainty makes its conclusion true: the people act on persuasion, then only suppose he is dead.
THE ROOT
πείσαντες
peísantes
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
peith-
To persuade, convince, or win over; in a perfect form, to trust or be confident.
“persuaded” in this verse is peísantes. The Greek word family joins persuasion with trust: being convinced and placing confidence share a linguistic seed. Here that power to win people over directs the crowd toward violence.
ALSO GROWS
pépoitha: Trust; be confident.
πέποιθα
This form shows persuasion’s inward branch: a person can come to rely on what has won their confidence.
apeithéō: Refuse to be persuaded; disobey.
ἀπειθέω
The same seed appears in resistance to persuasion, making the crowd’s change of conviction central to the scene.
λιθάσαντες
lithásantes
GROWS FROM
λιθ-
lith-
Stone; the verb means to stone or pelt with stones.
“stoned” in this verse is lithásantes. The verb carries the material of the violence inside it: the crowd’s action is literally made of stones. The same word-family makes the attack physical and specific, even as the verse leaves the crowd’s conclusion uncertain.
ALSO GROWS
líthos: Stone.
λίθος
The noun is the concrete object carried into the verb: stones become the crowd’s means of violence.
lithoboléo: Throw stones; stone.
λιθοβολέω
This related verb makes the act of casting stones explicit, echoing the bodily force of the scene.
THE PATTERN
Persuasion and accusation can turn a crowd into an instrument of public violence.
And two men, sons of Belial, came in and settled before him, and the men of Belial bore witness against him, even against Naboth, before the people, saying, Naboth blessed God and the king. Then they brought him out of the city, and stoned him with stones, and he died.But the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas, and to have Jesus perish.Then they lifted stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the middle of them, and so passed by.THE THREAD
Three times I was struck with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was broken at sea, a night and a day I have been in the depth.Acts 14:19 uses λιθάζω, the same verb translated “stoned” in this first-person line. The connection keeps the scene concrete: stones strike a body, and the violence remains named as violence.
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