What Does Acts 15:26 Mean?
Men who have handed over their living souls for the nature of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.
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
Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.THE KEY
What the verse calls hazarding is a handing over: the living self is yielded for the nature carried in Jesus’ name.
THE MEANING
A name is more than a label here; it carries a nature. Jesus’ name holds deliverance, and this verse shows lives handed over for that nature.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that Jesus’ name is only a word to pronounce: here, the name is a nature that claims a whole life.
THE ROOT
παραδεδωκόσι
paradedōkosi
GROWS FROM
παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi; παρά + δίδωμι, para + didōmi)
Give over, hand over, or entrust; in this verse, hand over into danger.
“handed over” in this verse is paradedōkosi. The Greek verb pictures a handover beneath the danger that “hazarded” conveys. Their lives are given over for the nature named.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: To give.
δίδωμι
The base verb makes the act a giving over, not simply a gamble.
paradosis: A handing over, transmission, or tradition.
παράδοσις
The same handover can pass something on; here, what is handed over is life itself.
ψυχάς
psychas
GROWS FROM
ψυχή (psychē; Greek stem ψυχ-)
Life, soul, the living self.
“living souls” in this verse is psychas. The word translated “lives” can also name the living self or life. The verse speaks of whole selves put at stake, not an abstract idea detached from living.
ALSO GROWS
psychē: Life, soul, living self.
ψυχή
This singular form is the same word translated “life” in Matthew 16:25, where it is both lost and found.
psychikos: Pertaining to the natural or living self.
ψυχικός
This related form keeps the word’s connection to embodied life in view.
ὀνόματος
onomatos
GROWS FROM
ὄνομα (onoma; Greek stem ὀνοματ-)
Name; the identity or nature carried by a name.
“For the name” carries more than an allegiance to a spoken label: it points to the nature of the one named. Jesus (Ἰησοῦς, Iēsous; יֵשׁוּעַ, Yēshūaʿ) carries the name-sense of deliverance, from יָשַׁע (yāshaʿ), to deliver.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name or call.
ὀνομάζω
Naming makes an identity known; the verse ties the lives to the nature made known in Jesus.
onomastos: Named, renowned.
ὀνομαστός
A name can carry a recognized character, not merely a sound.
THE PATTERN
A person’s commitments become visible when the living self is handed over for another’s sake.
Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that bared their living souls to death, on the heights of the field.who placed their own necks beneath for my living soul, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the nations.By this we perceive love, for he laid down his living soul for us, and we are bound to lay down our living souls for the brothers.THE THREAD
For whoever wills to deliver his living soul will lose its way, and whoever loses its way for my sake will find it.The Greek word ψυχή (psychē) appears in Acts as “lives” and in Matthew as “life.” The same living self is what can be handed over and what can be found.
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