What Does Acts 14:5 Mean?
And when a rush arose from both the nations and the Jews, together with their rulers, to outrage them and to pelt them with stones,
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 there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them,THE KEY
The word translated “assault” is a surge of intent, and here that surge crosses group lines and turns toward bodies.
THE MEANING
A shared impulse can gather distinct groups, including their rulers, around an intention to humiliate and injure. The target is a body: the verse names abusive treatment and stoning. The sentence leaves the threat pending, with intention already gathered into dangerous motion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that hostility always belongs to one separate camp: groups with different identities and their rulers can converge on the same target.
THE ROOT
ὁρμή
hormē
GROWS FROM
ὁρμάω
hormaō
to rush, surge, or set in motion
“rush” in this verse is hormē. The noun ὁρμή names a surge of intent moving toward action. In James 3:4 it describes the course directed by a helmsman; here a shared surge gathers force toward bodily harm.
ALSO GROWS
hormaō: to rush, charge, or set out
ὁρμάω
Acts 19:29 uses this verb for a crowd rushing together into the theatre, showing how impulse becomes collective motion.
hormē: impulse, rush, or course
ὁρμή
James 3:4 uses this noun for the course of a ship steered by its helmsman, linking impulse with direction.
ὑβρίσαι
hubrisai
GROWS FROM
ὑβρίζω
hubrizō
to outrage or subject someone to insolent, humiliating treatment
“outrage them” in this verse is hubrisai. Here, ὑβρίζω gives the intended treatment a shade of outrage and humiliation alongside the stated stoning. The verse holds degradation and physical harm together.
ALSO GROWS
hybris: outrage or insolence
ὕβρις
The noun names the dishonoring force carried by the treatment intended here.
hybristēs: an insolent or violent person
ὑβριστής
In 1 Timothy 1:13, this related word is rendered “injurious,” showing the root’s connection to harm as well as insult.
THE PATTERN
Collective hostility moves toward bodily harm when shared intent acquires a target and direction.
The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow, to topple the bowed ones and those in want, and to slay those who walk straight.Then they cried out with a loud voice, and held shut their ears, and rushed upon him with one passion.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.THE THREAD
Look also at the ships, which, though they are so large and driven by hard winds, are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the one who keeps the course straight wills.James uses the same Greek noun, ὁρμή (hormē, “impulse” or “course”), for the course a helmsman directs. Here the collective surge also has a direction: toward humiliation and stones.
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