What Does Acts 15:14 Mean?
Simeon has led out how God at the first looked upon the nations, to take out of them a people for his nature.
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
Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.THE KEY
God’s attentive reach into the nations gathers people into the nature carried by his name.
THE MEANING
God’s attention reaches among the nations now, gathering people into a shared life shaped by God’s nature. Your belonging is not confined to ancestry or borders; it begins with God’s reaching toward you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that belonging to God depends on being born inside one inherited people: here, God gathers a people from among the nations.
THE ROOT
ἐπεσκέψατο
epeskepsato
GROWS FROM
σκεπ- (skep-), in ἐπισκέπτομαι
To look toward or attend to; by extension, to visit or care for.
“looked upon” in this verse is epeskepsato. The Greek verb carries attentive regard, not merely arriving somewhere. In this verse, that attention reaches into the nations and results in a gathered people.
ALSO GROWS
episkopē: Oversight, visitation
ἐπισκοπή
This related word keeps the sense of attentive care in view: the visit is focused regard.
episkopos: Overseer, one who watches over
ἐπίσκοπος
The same word family connects visiting with watchful care, deepening the sense of God’s attention.
ὀνόματι
onomati
GROWS FROM
ὀνοματ-
onomat-
Name, designation, identity.
The phrase is “for his name”: the people are gathered in relation to God’s identity and character. The name is more than a label; it tells what kind of nature this people is gathered around.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name or call
ὀνομάζω
Naming makes an identity explicit, illuminating the people gathered for God’s name.
onomastos: Named, renowned
ὀνομαστός
This branch shows how a name can carry a recognized identity or character.
ἐθνῶν
ethnōn
GROWS FROM
ἐθν-
ethn-
A nation, people, or distinct group.
The Greek says “from among nations” (ἐξ ἐθνῶν, ex ethnōn), then “a people” (λαόν, laon). The sentence moves from the many nations to a gathered people, opening the scope beyond a single inherited boundary.
ALSO GROWS
ethnikos: Of the nations; Gentile
ἐθνικός
This related form keeps the word’s connection to the nations visible.
ethnikōs: In the manner of the nations; in a Gentile manner
ἐθνικῶς
This adverbial form shows the same root describing conduct associated with the nations.
THE PATTERN
God gathers a people from among the nations, extending belonging across inherited boundaries.
And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the ground will be blessed.Them also will I bring to my set-apart mountain, and gladden them in my house of prayer. Their ascending offerings and their sacrifices shall be received with favor upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.After this I see, and look, a great crowd that no one can number, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wrapped in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.THE THREAD
As he also says in Hosea, "I will call them my people, who were not my people, and her beloved, who was not beloved."Both verses use λαός (laos, “people”): Acts describes God gathering a people from among the nations, and Romans repeats the promise that those once called “not my people” are called “my people.” The shared word makes belonging across former boundaries visible.
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