What Does Acts 16:12 Mean?
And from there we went to Philippi, the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony. We remained in that city for some days.
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 from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.THE KEY
The word translated “abiding” pictures days as something spent through, making staying part of the journey itself.
THE MEANING
Movement reaches a place, then gives way to days spent there. A destination becomes a lived setting through the time that unfolds within it.
THE ROOT
διατρίβοντες
diatribontes
GROWS FROM
τρίβω
tribō
To rub or wear down; in related words, to spend time.
“remained” in this verse is diatribontes. The verse’s διατρίβοντες (diatribontes), “abiding,” comes from διατρίβω (diatribō), built on τρίβω (tribō). A related word, τρίβος (tribos), means a beaten path: one carries the trace of feet passing over ground, the other of time spent in a place.
ALSO GROWS
diatribō: Spend time; stay in a place.
διατρίβω
This is the verb behind “abiding,” showing that the stay is measured as time spent there.
tribos: A beaten path or track.
τρίβος
It shares the root’s image of something worn through repeated passage, echoing how days are spent through a stay.
THE PATTERN
Arrival becomes experience through time spent in a place.
And he came upon a certain place, and lodged there all night, because the sun had come in; and he took stones from that place and set them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.But they pressed him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day has already leaned. And he went in to stay with them.And he sat there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.THE THREAD
And we sailed out from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came to them at Troas in five days, where we wore away seven days.Acts 20:6 uses the same Greek verb, διατρίβω (diatribō), for the seven days spent at Troas. The repeated wording makes the texture of “abiding” clear: it is time spent in a place, not merely a stop along the way.
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