What Does Acts 15:16 Mean?
After this I will turn back, and will build again the tent of David, which is fallen down, and I will build again the overturned places thereof, and I will set it upright.
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
After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:THE KEY
The Greek says “I will build again” twice, once for David’s fallen dwelling and again for its ruins, so collapse itself is met with rebuilding at every scale.
THE MEANING
A fallen dwelling is still addressable: the speaker returns, rebuilds the tent and its ruins, then sets it upright. The verse holds collapse and restoration in the same sentence without calling the ruins unreal or final. Its action rests with the one who promises to return.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The collapse is final, and nothing that has fallen can be restored.
THE ROOT
ἀνοικοδομήσω
an-oikodomēsō
GROWS FROM
οἰκοδομ-
House-building: raising a structure.
“build again” in this verse is an-oikodomēsō. The Greek verb appears twice, joining the rebuilding of the fallen dwelling to the rebuilding of its ruins. Restoration reaches both the named structure and what remains after its collapse.
ALSO GROWS
oikodomeō: to build a house; to build up
οἰκοδομέω
This is the base verb within “build again,” so rebuilding is the verse’s own repeated action.
oikodomē: a building; a structure
οἰκοδομή
The same word family can name the structure itself, connecting the rebuilding action to the dwelling being restored.
σκηνή
skēnē
GROWS FROM
σκην-
Tent; shelter.
The Greek word keeps the image of a tent or shelter. The promise is about a dwelling being raised again, not only an abstract restoration.
ALSO GROWS
skēnoō: to pitch a tent; to dwell
σκηνόω
The related verb links the shelter with the act of dwelling in it.
skēnopoios: tentmaker
σκηνοποιός
This word preserves the same tent image in the name of someone who makes such a shelter.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; the related noun can also mean kinsman.
David’s name carries the Hebrew family of דּוֹד, “beloved.” The verse holds that beloved name beside a fallen dwelling, keeping both in view as restoration is promised.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: beloved; kinsman
דּוֹד
This related word gives the name David its association with belovedness.
dōdîm: loves; expressions of love
דּוֹדִים
This plural form extends the same word family into love itself.
THE PATTERN
Restoration names the fallen structure directly and turns its ruins into the ground of renewed dwelling.
In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and close up its breaches; I will raise up its torn-down places, and I will build it as in the days of the ages.The LORD builds Jerusalem; he gathers the driven-out of Israel.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.The compound ἀνοικοδομήσω in Acts and “built up” in 1 Peter share the Greek house-building family οἰκοδομέω. Acts pictures a collapsed dwelling raised again; Peter carries that building language into a people becoming the dwelling.
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