What Does Acts 16:18 Mean?
She did this for many days. But Paul, worn through with pain, turned and said to the breath, I command you in the nature of Jesus the Anointed One, to come out of her. And it came out that very hour.
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 this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.THE KEY
The command carries the nature of Yeshua, deliverance, and the constricting presence comes out of the woman.
THE MEANING
An oppressive force can act through you without becoming your nature. The command addresses the spirit as distinct from the woman, and it comes out in the same hour. In the name invoked, deliverance takes visible form as release.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie undone is that an oppressive influence acting through you must be inseparable from your identity.
THE ROOT
ὀνόματι
onomati
GROWS FROM
ὀνομ-/ὀνοματ- (onom-/onomat-)
Name, designation; the nature made known through a name.
English “name” can sound like a label, but this word opens onto the nature represented by the one named. The command is spoken in Jesus’ nature of deliverance, and the result is release.
ALSO GROWS
onoma: name, designation
ὄνομα
This is the same word Paul uses in “in the name,” pointing to the character and authority he represents.
onomazō: to name, call by name
ὀνομάζω
Naming identifies who or what is being addressed; here the command addresses the spirit directly.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver; bring out from constriction into spaciousness.
The name Jesus is the Greek form of יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, “deliverance”), from יָשַׁע (yashaʿ, “to deliver”). Spoken in that name, the command carries deliverance as nature: the movement is out of constriction and toward space.
ALSO GROWS
yashaʿ: deliver, bring out
יָשַׁע
The root behind Yeshua makes deliverance an active bringing out, matching the spirit’s exit.
yeshuah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
The name and the outcome share a deliverance family: release happens as what holds the woman leaves.
πνεύματι
pneumati
GROWS FROM
πνε-/πνευ- (pne-/pneu-)
Breathe, blow; breath, wind.
The word carries the concrete image of breath and wind along with the spirit named in the verse. It describes an animating presence as something distinct from the woman, something the command releases.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: breathe, blow
πνέω
This verb shows the moving breath at the root of the word used for the spirit addressed here.
pnoē: breath, blowing
πνοή
This related word keeps breath and moving force together, deepening the verse’s image of an animating presence.
THE PATTERN
Release becomes visible as a constricting presence is brought out and the person is no longer equated with what held them.
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.He brings them out of darkness and the valley of deepest darkness, and tears their bonds apart.For he said to him, "Come out of the man, unclean breath."THE THREAD
Then Peter said, Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you. In the nature of Jesus the Anointed One of Nazareth, rise up and walk.Both verses use ὄνομα (onoma, “name”), and in both it marks Jesus’ nature as the source of action: here a spirit exits, there a man rises and walks. The shared root opens the phrase as nature made visible through release and restored movement.
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