What Does Acts 15:40 Mean?
And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being handed over by the brethren to the favor of the Lord.
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 Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.THE KEY
The brethren’s recommendation is a handover, entrusting Paul’s departure to the Lord’s favor.
THE MEANING
A calling can take shape through choice and companionship while its sustaining favor comes from beyond the group. A community can affirm a departure and entrust it to the Lord’s favor; endorsement and dependence are held together. The journey’s support rests in a favor no human group controls.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that human approval is what secures a calling: the community’s endorsement is an entrusting, while the sustaining source is the Lord’s favor.
THE ROOT
παραδοθείς
paradotheis
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
Give; in the compound verb in this verse, hand over, deliver, entrust.
“handed over” in this verse is paradotheis. The KJV’s “recommended” carries an image of transfer: Paul is handed into the Lord’s care as he leaves. This same verb can describe handing someone over to danger elsewhere, so it names a real transfer of custody, not a guarantee that the road is easy.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: Hand over, deliver, entrust; in some contexts, betray.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb behind “recommended” here: the brethren entrust Paul to the Lord’s favor.
paradosis: Tradition; what has been handed down.
παράδοσις
Its sense of something passed from one hand to another makes the transfer inside “recommended” easier to see.
χάριτι
chariti
GROWS FROM
χάρις
charis
Favor; goodwill freely bestowed.
The travelers are entrusted to favor as something given, not something they carry as personal credit. The word’s branches make that favor active: it is shown, granted, and received.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: Show favor, grant freely, forgive.
χαρίζομαι
Favor is something actively granted, which fits the brethren entrusting the journey to the Lord’s care.
charisma: A favor-gift; a gift freely given.
χάρισμα
This branch presents favor as a gift, illuminating the support that lies beyond the community’s own power.
THE PATTERN
A human community can send people forward by entrusting the work to favor beyond its control.
And from there they sailed to Antioch, from where they had been handed over to the favor of God for the work they had filled up.Roll your way upon the LORD, and lean your weight on him, and he will do it.So let those who suffer according to the will of God place beside him the keeping of their living souls in doing good, as to a steady Creator.THE THREAD
And from there they sailed to Antioch, from where they had been handed over to the favor of God for the work they had filled up.Acts 14:26 uses the same Greek verb for entrusting and the same phrase, “the grace of God.” Together, the verses show the mission entrusted to favor both as work reaches fulfillment and as a new departure begins.
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