What Does Acts 18:6 Mean?
And when they lined themselves up against him and reviled him, he shook out his cloak and said to them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the nations.
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 they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.THE KEY
The Greek verb pictures opposition as taking a position, and the shaken garment marks the point where responsibility stays with the rejectors and the witness moves on.
THE MEANING
Where the message meets opposition and slander, the refusal belongs to those who set themselves against it; the witness stands clear of their blood. The encounter can then be released, and the message carried beyond that closed door.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that a witness becomes answerable for a hearer’s deliberate refusal: the blood remains on the rejecting hearers’ own heads.
THE ROOT
ἀντιτασσομένων
antitassomenōn
GROWS FROM
τάσσω
tassō
To arrange, appoint, or set in order; with ἀντί (anti, against), to take a position against.
“lined themselves up against him” in this verse is antitassomenōn. The verb joins “against” to the idea of arranging or taking a position. Opposition here is a stance formed against the message, not simply a passing disagreement.
ALSO GROWS
tassō: Arrange, appoint, or assign.
τάσσω
The base verb supplies the image of taking a position when joined with ἀντί, “against.”
diatassō: Order, direct, or command.
διατάσσω
This compound uses the same root for setting things in order, sharpening the contrast with a stance set against the message.
ἐκτιναξάμενος
ektinaxamenos
GROWS FROM
τινάσσω
tinassō
To shake or toss; with ἐκ (ek, out), to shake out or off.
“shook” in this verse is ektinaxamenos. This is a casting-off gesture, not a vague tremor. The same verb describes shaking dust off when leaving a town that will not receive the message, making Paul’s action a visible release before he turns elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
ektinassō: Shake out or shake off.
ἐκτινάσσω
In Matthew 10:14 and Acts 13:51, the same verb marks departure after rejection.
apotinassō: Shake off.
ἀποτινάσσω
In Acts 28:5, Paul shakes a viper off his hand; the shared root carries the sense of casting something away.
THE PATTERN
A message refused at one threshold is released to travel onward, while responsibility for the refusal stays with those who reject it.
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Whoever will not take you in, nor hear and respond to your words, as you go out from that house or city, shake the dust out from your feet.Then Paul and Barnabas, with full voice, said, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you push it away from yourselves, and judge yourselves not weighing enough for the life of the ages, look, we turn to the Gentiles.THE THREAD
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came to Iconium.The verb translated “shook” is the same Greek verb as “shook off” here. In Acts 13:51, shaking the dust accompanies departure for Iconium; in Acts 18:6, shaking the garment accompanies the stated turn toward the Gentiles.
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