What Does Acts 18:19 Mean?
And he came down to Ephesus and left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and talked it through with the Jews.
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 he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.THE KEY
His arrival becomes participation when he enters the gathered community and works through ideas with its people.
THE MEANING
The verse brings you from arrival into engagement: he comes to Ephesus, leaves his companions there, and enters the synagogue to reason with the Jews. The exchange happens among people already gathered, where words are worked through together.
THE ROOT
διαλέγομαι
dialegomai
GROWS FROM
λεγ-/λογ- (leg-/log-)
To say or speak; the related λογ- form also appears in words for speech and consideration.
“talked it through” in this verse is dialegomai. The verb διαλέγομαι means to converse, discuss, or reason through something with others. Its speech-root connects the exchange here with both spoken words and careful consideration: reasoning is something voiced and worked through.
ALSO GROWS
logos: Word, message, or account
λόγος
This branch makes the speech within reasoned discussion visible: ideas take form in words.
logizomai: Reckon, count, or consider
λογίζομαι
This branch links the same word-family with weighing an idea, a shade carried by reasoning.
συναγωγή
synagōgē
GROWS FROM
ἄγω
agō
To lead or bring.
“synagogue” in this verse is synagōgē. συναγωγή carries the sense of a gathering, something brought together. The verse therefore places the discussion within a people gathered in one place, not merely inside a building.
ALSO GROWS
synagō: Gather or bring together
συνάγω
This verb shows the gathering-action carried in the word synagogue.
agōgē: Leading, conduct, or way of life
ἀγωγή
This branch retains the root’s sense of being led or brought along, echoing how people are brought together.
THE PATTERN
Understanding is pursued through words exchanged with others, including among people gathered together.
And Paul, as was his habit, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths talked through the writings with them.Come now, and let us lay it out together, says the LORD. Though your falling short be as scarlet, it shall be whitened as snow. Though it be red like crimson, it shall be as wool.Then those who stand in awe of the LORD spoke, each one to his neighbor, and the LORD bent his ear and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written before his face for those in awe of the LORD, who reckon his name.THE THREAD
And Paul, as was his habit, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths talked through the writings with them.Acts 17:2 uses the same Greek verb διαλέγομαι (dialegomai, “to converse, discuss, or reason”) as Acts 18:19. Here, the exchange is explicitly rooted in the scriptures, showing what that shared reasoning can work through.
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