What Does Acts 16:1 Mean?
Then he came down to Derbe and to Lystra, and there was a certain disciple named Timothy, son of a certain woman who was a Jewess and trusted, but his father was a Greek.
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
Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:THE KEY
A mixed inheritance does not cancel trust: the verse names Timothy’s Greek father and Jewish mother, then calls him a disciple.
THE MEANING
Your inherited story can cross lines others treat as opposites without canceling the trust alive in you. Discipleship names a life of learning, while family origins remain part of the picture. The verse holds both without making either the whole of a person.
THE ROOT
πιστῆς
pistēs
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
peith-
Be persuaded, come to trust; place confidence in.
“trusted” in this verse is pistēs. The description of Timothy’s mother carries trust as lived reliance, more than a label of opinion. That trust sits beside a Greek father in the same family story, while Timothy himself is called a learner.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: Trust, believe
πιστεύω
The related verb shows belief as reliance placed in someone or something.
pistis: Trust, faith
πίστις
This noun names the trust that the verse attributes to Timothy’s mother.
μαθητής
mathētēs
GROWS FROM
μανθ-
manth-
Learn, acquire understanding.
“Disciple” carries the sense of a learner, someone shaped through learning. Timothy’s identity here is not merely a title; it describes a life oriented toward learning.
ALSO GROWS
manthanō: Learn
μανθάνω
The verb makes clear the learning held inside the word “disciple.”
mathēteuō: Make or be a disciple; train as a learner
μαθητεύω
This related form keeps discipleship connected to the process of learning.
Τιμόθεος
Timotheos
GROWS FROM
τιμ- (tim-) + θεός (theos)
τιμή (timē, honor or value) joined with θεός (theos, God); commonly understood as “honoring God.”
“Timotheus” in this verse is Timotheos. Timothy’s name joins honor and God, carrying a nature of honoring God alongside the verse’s description of him as a disciple. His name, family story, and the trust in his household give three distinct parts of the portrait.
ALSO GROWS
timē: Honor, value
τιμή
This is the honor-bearing element in Timothy’s name.
timaō: Honor, value
τιμάω
This related verb gives the name’s honor element an active sense.
THE PATTERN
Trust can mark a person whose family story crosses inherited boundaries.
And Ruth said, Do not press me to let go of you, or to turn back from following after you. For where you walk, I will walk, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people are my people, and your God my God.Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face. But in every nation the one who lives in awe of him and works alignment is received by him.There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither servant nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
When I recall the trust without a mask that is in you, which first made its home in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, I am persuaded that it lives in you also.Acts names Timothy’s mother as a Jewish woman who trusts; this verse names her as Eunice and also recalls Lois, his grandmother. The brief family note opens into a living lineage of trust that is present in Timothy too.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us