What Does Acts 16:35 Mean?
And when it was day, the commanders sent the rod-bearers, saying, Release those men.
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 when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.THE KEY
Greek marks both the officers’ sending and the men’s release with the same outward prefix, ἀπό (apó, away/from), so the command moves freedom through the act of dispatch.
THE MEANING
The sentence gives one outward movement two destinations: the officers are sent, and the men are released. For you now, release appears as an action carried through a command until it reaches those who are held.
THE ROOT
ἀπόλυσον
apólyson
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
To loosen or unbind; with ἀπό (apó, away/from), ἀπολύω (apolýō) can mean to release or dismiss.
“release those men” in this verse is apólyson. The command is ἀπόλυσον (apólyson, release or send away), built on λύω (lyō, loosen). Earlier, the KJV’s sent translates ἀπέστειλαν (apésteilan, they sent), from ἀποστέλλω (apostéllō, send or dispatch), a different verb, but one that also begins with ἀπό (apó, away/from). The officers move outward first; then the order turns that movement toward the men.
ALSO GROWS
lýsis: A loosening, release, or unbinding.
λύσις
It makes the release in the command tangible as the undoing of what holds someone in place.
katalýō: To loosen, dismantle, or take apart.
καταλύω
It shows the same root at work when what is holding something together comes undone.
THE PATTERN
Release takes shape when a word or act sends people outward from what confines them.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.Who makes judgment for the pressed, who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD loosens the bound.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
So when they had threatened them further, they let them go, finding no way to cut them short because of the people, for everyone gave weight to God for what had come to be.Acts 4:21 uses the same verb, ἀπολύω (apolýō, release or dismiss), for letting the apostles go. Together the verses show release passing through the language of authority: a word that can threaten can also open the way out.
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