What Does Acts 18:13 Mean?
Saying, This one wins men over to stand in awe of God against the instruction.
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
Saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.THE KEY
The hidden fault line is who gets to define the instruction that governs reverence for God.
THE MEANING
The accusation claims that people are being persuaded to worship God in a way judged contrary to instruction. The verse lets the charge be heard without making the accuser’s judgment God’s verdict.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A charge framed in the language of God’s instruction is not, by that wording alone, God’s own verdict.
THE ROOT
νόμον
nómon
GROWS FROM
νέμω
nemō
To allot, assign, or distribute.
The word carries the sense of instruction, custom, and law: an ordering that gives conduct its place. The accusation claims that this persuasion falls outside the accepted ordering for honoring God, but the verse does not settle whether that claim is true.
ALSO GROWS
nómimos: Lawful, customary, or legitimate.
νόμιμος
This branch links instruction with what a community accepts as its norm, illuminating the boundary implied by the accusation.
nomízō: To consider, suppose, or follow custom.
νομίζω
It shows how an accepted norm can shape what people regard as lawful or right.
ἀναπείθει
anapeíthei
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peíthō
To persuade, convince, or win someone over.
“wins over” in this verse is anapeíthei. The verb centers the charge on people being won over, not merely on words being spoken. Its root also reaches into trust and obedience, so the dispute touches what people are persuaded to rely on and follow.
ALSO GROWS
peíthomai: To be persuaded, trust, or obey.
πείθομαι
This form shows persuasion reaching beyond an argument into a person’s response and reliance.
peitharchéō: To obey an authority.
πειθαρχέω
This compound joins the persuasion family with authority, bringing the verse’s question of who governs devotion into focus.
THE PATTERN
Claims to protect devotion can become contests over whose instruction defines obedience.
Then these men said, We shall find no charge against this Daniel, unless we find one against him concerning the decree of his God.But in emptiness they bow down to me, teaching the commands of men as instruction.Then Peter and the other sent ones answered and said, We must obey God rather than humankind.THE THREAD
For now, do I persuade people or God? Or do I seek to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of the Anointed One.The verb behind “persuadeth” is built on πείθω (peíthō), the same verb used for “persuade” in Galatians. That shared root brings the question of persuasion into view: whose approval governs what people are led to trust?
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