What Does Acts 15:6 Mean?
And the sent ones and elders came together to perceive about this word.
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 the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.THE KEY
The verse turns deliberation into shared sight: they gather to perceive what has been said.
THE MEANING
A difficult question comes into view through shared attention: people gather and look at the matter together. Discernment here is communal seeing, with the question held in common long enough to be perceived.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a difficult question must be settled by the first confident voice.
THE ROOT
ἰδεῖν
idein
GROWS FROM
ὁράω (horaō; aorist εἶδον, infinitive ἰδεῖν)
See, perceive; come to know.
“perceive” in this verse is idein. ἰδεῖν (idein) means “to see,” adding the sense of perception to the English “consider.” The gathering is directed toward seeing the matter clearly together.
ALSO GROWS
eidos: Form, appearance
εἶδος
This related seeing-word links perception with the form something takes when it comes into view.
oida: Know, perceive
οἶδα
This form carries the sense of knowing through seeing, joining perception and knowledge in the same word-family.
λόγου
logou
GROWS FROM
λεγ-/λογ- (leg-/log-)
Say, speak; what is spoken or articulated.
Alongside “matter,” λόγος (logos) means “word” or “account,” keeping the question connected to what is said and heard. The issue is something brought into language and shared for perception.
ALSO GROWS
logos: Word, account, matter
λόγος
The verse uses this word for the matter under consideration, carrying the sense of something articulated.
dialegomai: Discuss, converse
διαλέγομαι
This related verb names speech moving between people, fitting a question held in shared attention.
THE PATTERN
Discernment takes shape when a matter is held in shared attention and tested through more than one voice.
Without counsel, plans are broken, but in a multitude of counselors they stand.For where two or three are gathered together in my nature, there I am in the midst of them.Let the prophets speak, two or three, and let the others judge it.THE THREAD
And when there had been much searching, Peter rose up, and said to them, Men and brethren, you know that from ancient days God picked out among us that the nations through my mouth should hear the word of the good news and trust.“Matter” here and “word” in the next verse translate the same Greek noun, λόγος (logos), meaning word, account, or matter. The connection moves from perceiving the matter together to hearing the word spoken.
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