What Does Acts 14:6 Mean?
Seeing it together, they fled for refuge to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and to the land lying all around.
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
They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about:THE KEY
The passage lets clear sight lead to leaving: the Greek word-family for flight also names refuge.
THE MEANING
Perceiving danger changes the route: the way opens from one threatened place toward other cities and the surrounding region. Departure can carry the path beyond the place that has become unsafe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Faithfulness always means staying where danger finds me.
THE ROOT
κατέφυγον
katéphygon
GROWS FROM
φεύγω
pheugō
to flee, escape
“fled for refuge” in this verse is katéphygon. The verb names their flight, while another word from the same family, καταφυγή (kataphygē), means refuge. The language places leaving danger and reaching shelter side by side.
ALSO GROWS
kataphygē: refuge, place of escape
καταφυγή
This branch names the shelter associated with the same flee-root, joining flight with refuge.
phygas: fugitive, exile
φυγάς
This branch names someone shaped by flight, showing how leaving danger can also mean becoming displaced.
συνιδόντες
synidóntes
GROWS FROM
εἴδω
eídō
to see, perceive
“ware of it / perceived” in this verse is synidóntes. The Greek word presents awareness as perception: they see what is unfolding and respond to it. The related form οἶδα (oida) carries the sense of knowing as having seen, linking clear perception with knowledge.
ALSO GROWS
oida: know, perceive
οἶδα
This related form carries the sense of knowing from having seen, drawing perception and knowledge together.
syneidēsis: conscience, awareness
συνείδησις
This branch uses the same seeing-and-knowing family for inner awareness.
THE PATTERN
When danger closes one place, movement can carry the path into another.
So Michal lowered David through a window, and he went, and fled, and slipped away.When they pursue you in this city, flee into another, for truly I say to you, you will not finish the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.So those who were scattered passed through every place, bringing the good news of the word.THE THREAD
When they pursue you in this city, flee into another, for truly I say to you, you will not finish the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.Both verses use forms of φεύγω (pheugō, “flee”): Acts has κατέφυγον, while Matthew says φύγετε. Matthew names another city as the destination, and Acts shows that same flight-root carrying the route toward Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding region.
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