What Does Acts 16:26 Mean?
And suddenly there came a great shaking, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and at once all the doors were opened, and every one's bonds were untied.
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 suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.THE KEY
The shaking reaches both the prison’s foundations and everyone’s bonds, making release structural and personal at once.
THE MEANING
Confinement has layers: foundations, doors, and bonds. A shaking reaches through all of them; every door opens and everyone’s restraints loosen. Release extends to all who are held, not just one person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that confinement is immovable or that one person’s release must leave everyone else bound.
THE ROOT
ἀνέθη
anethē
GROWS FROM
ἀνίημι
aniēmi
To let up, loosen, or release.
“untied” in this verse is anethē. The word translated “loosed” belongs to a Greek word family that also names relief and relaxation. Release is pictured as what happens when the grip on a person lets up.
ALSO GROWS
anesis: Relief, release, or relaxation
ἄνεσις
This related noun shows that loosening a restraint and receiving relief belong to the same word-family.
anientes: Letting up or ceasing
ἀνιέντες
This form of the same verb appears in an instruction to let up on threats, extending the root’s sense from physical bonds to a grip that can be relaxed.
δεσμά
desma
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
To bind or tie.
The word-family links bonds with the person held in them: restraint is not merely an object beside someone but a condition that can define them. When the bonds loosen, that condition is interrupted.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: A bond or restraint
δεσμός
This related word names the binding itself, showing what is released when the bands come loose.
desmōtēs: A bound person or prisoner
δεσμώτης
This related word names someone by the state of being bound, so the loosening reaches beyond the restraints to the people they hold.
σαλευθῆναι
saleuthēnai
GROWS FROM
σαλεύω
saleuō
To shake, stir, or unsettle.
The same word-family can describe what is shaken and what cannot be shaken. Here the prison’s foundations are unsettled, and the release follows through the structure.
ALSO GROWS
asaleutos: Unshaken or firm
ἀσάλευτος
This opposite form shares the root and makes its range visible: what is shaken is no longer fixed in place.
saleuō: Shake or unsettle
σαλεύω
The verb names the force acting on the prison’s foundations, linking structural disturbance with the opening that follows.
THE PATTERN
Release reaches into confinement and breaks the restraints holding people there.
He brings them out of darkness and the valley of deepest darkness, and tears their bonds apart.To open blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and those who settle in darkness out of the prison house.And behold, the messenger of the LORD stood over him, and a light shone in the prison, and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, "Stand up quickly." And his chains fell away from his hands.THE THREAD
And release for you who are pressed, along with us, when the Lord Jesus is unveiled from heaven with the messengers of his strength.“Rest” translates ἄνεσις (anesis), meaning relief or release, from the same Greek word-family as ἀνίημι (aniēmi), the verb behind “loosed.” The bond falling away in Acts and the relief named here share a root-level image of what happens when the grip lets up.
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