What Does Acts 17:13 Mean?
But when the Jews of Thessalonica came to know that the word of God was announced by Paul in Berea, they came there also, and shook the crowds.
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
But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.THE KEY
The Greek pairs σαλεύοντες (saleuontes, “shaking”) with ταράσσοντες (tarassontes, “troubling”), giving the crowd’s agitation the force of both shaking and disturbance.
THE MEANING
News of the proclamation in Berea reaches Thessalonica, and people come to unsettle the crowd there. The verse holds the word’s reach and the agitation around it together: the announcement crosses a boundary, and disturbance arrives with those who follow its report.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A message reaching a new place does not mean it is welcomed there; the report draws agitators as well as hearers.
THE ROOT
σαλεύοντες
saleuontes
GROWS FROM
σαλευ-
saleu-
To shake, unsettle, or make something totter.
“shook” in this verse is saleuontes. The verb carries the concrete force of shaking, as when floodwaters threaten a house or a report shakes a person’s composure. Greek pairs it with ταράσσοντες (tarassontes, “troubling”), showing the crowd as both shaken and unsettled.
ALSO GROWS
saleusai: To shake something.
σαλεῦσαι
The same verb describes a house that a flood cannot shake, giving the crowd’s agitation the force of disturbed footing.
saleuthēnai: To be shaken in mind.
σαλευθῆναι
The root also names inward destabilization, showing that its force can reach beyond visible commotion.
κατηγγέλη
katēnggelē
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
To announce or carry a report.
“announced” in this verse is katēnggelē. The verb belongs to the announcing family also seen in words for a messenger and a good message. The proclamation is public speech that travels by report: news of it reaches Thessalonica and brings people to Berea.
ALSO GROWS
angelos: A messenger who carries news.
ἄγγελος
This noun shares the announcement family, bringing the message-carrier into view behind the act of proclaiming.
euangelion: Good news or a message announced.
εὐαγγέλιον
This branch names the message itself, showing how the same family can describe both announcement and what is announced.
λόγος
logos
GROWS FROM
λεγ- (leg-, λέγω legō, “say, tell”)
To say or tell; by extension, a spoken statement or message.
“word” in this verse is logos. λόγος can name a message, account, or expressed reason, not only an isolated utterance. Here it is announced publicly and becomes something people hear about and respond to.
ALSO GROWS
logia: Sayings or utterances entrusted to people.
λόγια
This branch shows a spoken message becoming something received and carried onward.
logikēn: Reasonable or rational.
λογικὴν
The word-family also reaches reasoned expression, adding the sense of a message that engages understanding.
THE PATTERN
A proclaimed word travels outward through people, carrying its effects beyond the place where it is first spoken.
Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his nature. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it in, and I could not.So those who were scattered passed through every place, bringing the good news of the word.For from you the word of the Lord has echoed out, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your full weight leaning toward God has gone out, so that we have no need to speak anything.THE THREAD
And when they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Set-Apart Breath and spoke the word of God with boldness.The same verb σαλεύω (saleuō, “shake”) names the gathered place trembling in Acts 4:31 and the people being stirred in Acts 17:13. One scene makes the shaking physical and the other social; in both, shaking and public speech occupy the same moment.
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