What Does Acts 16:36 Mean?

And the keeper of the bonds reported these words to Paul, saying, The commanders have sent to release you. Now then, go out, and go in wholeness.

Acts 16:36 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.

THE KEY

The sentence carries release all the way to its destination: departing in wholeness.

THE MEANING

Release carries you from confinement into an onward movement shaped by wholeness. The farewell speaks now: the place that has held you does not name the whole of what lies ahead.

THE ROOT

ἀπολυθῆτε

apolythēte

GROWS FROM

λύω

luō

to loosen, untie, or release

“release you” in this verse is apolythēte. The passive verb says Paul and Silas are being released by a decision sent from the authorities. Its seed, ⁨λύω⁩ (luō, to loosen), lets the word carry the feel of bonds coming undone as their departure begins.

ALSO GROWS

luō: to loosen, untie, release

λύω

The verb beneath “let you go” evokes what happens to the bound: what held them is loosened.

apólysis: release or dismissal

ἀπόλυσις

The noun form names release as a distinct event, giving the officials’ command the weight of an actual loosening.

ἐν εἰρήνῃ

en eirēnē

GROWS FROM

εἰρην-

eirēn-

peace, harmony, wholeness

The released ones are told to depart within ⁨εἰρήνη⁩ (eirēnē, wholeness). Its word family includes making peace and being peaceable, giving the farewell a quality that can be lived, not just wished.

ALSO GROWS

eirēnopoios: peacemaker

εἰρηνοποιός

The shared stem links peace with something made and carried into relationships.

eirēnikos: peaceable, characterized by peace

εἰρηνικός

This branch shows peace as a quality that can shape how a person moves forward.

THE PATTERN

Release from confinement restores movement and opens the way toward wholeness.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

Exodus 8:1 · SDVRelease breaks the hold of confinement and lets the people move toward the life named for them.

The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.

Isaiah 61:1 · SDVLiberty reaches those held captive, and the opening of the prison gives their movement somewhere to begin.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free.

John 8:36 · SDVFreedom becomes a present condition, no longer defined by the force that once held you.

THE THREAD

The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has given weight to his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and turned away from in the face of Pilate, when he had judged it right to release him.

Acts 3:13 · SDV

The same verb ⁨ἀπολύω⁩ (apolýō, release) appears here as “let him go.” Beside the release that reaches Paul and Silas, this verse holds a harder edge: an authority can intend release while the decision remains vulnerable to others’ power.

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