What Does Acts 18:7 Mean?
And he stepped across from there into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who was in awe of God, whose house pressed against the synagogue.
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 departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.THE KEY
The house does not merely sit near the synagogue: the Greek says the two share a border.
THE MEANING
A God-revering man’s house touches the synagogue, and Paul enters that home. The verse places household life and gathered worship edge to edge, with no long distance between devotion and daily space.
THE ROOT
συνομοροῦσα
synomorousa
GROWS FROM
ὁμορ
Bordering, being adjacent, sharing an edge.
“joined hard” in this verse is synomorousa. The Greek describes more than closeness: the house and synagogue meet along a boundary. English can make the house sound simply nearby, while the Greek gives us a shared edge between household space and gathered worship.
ALSO GROWS
homoros: Neighboring, sharing a border.
ὅμορος
This word shares the ὁμορ consonants and makes the verse’s adjacency concrete: the house is a bordering neighbor to the synagogue.
homoreō: To border on, be adjacent to.
ὁμορέω
This verb carries the same root family and clarifies that the house touches the synagogue’s boundary.
σεβομένου
sebomenou
GROWS FROM
σεβ
Reverence, regard with awe.
“worshipped” in this verse is sebomenou. The word presents Justus as one who reveres God. That reverence belongs to the man whose home shares a boundary with the synagogue, bringing inward regard and public worship into the same frame.
ALSO GROWS
sebas: Awe, reverence.
σέβας
It shares the σεβ root and names the regard carried by Justus’s worship.
sebastos: Revered, worthy of reverence.
σεβαστός
This branch shares the root and shows the same family of words describing what receives reverence.
THE PATTERN
Devotion crosses the boundary between gathered worship and household life, making the home a place where worship takes root.
And if it seems evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you settle. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.And they, holding fast day by day with one passion in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, took their food with gladness and singleness of heart.Embrace also the assembly in their house. Embrace my beloved Epenetus, who is the first fruit of Achaia into the anointed one.THE THREAD
Embrace also the assembly in their house. Embrace my beloved Epenetus, who is the first fruit of Achaia into the anointed one.Acts names Justus’s οἰκία (oikia), a house beside the synagogue; Romans uses οἶκος (oikos), from the same οἰκ root, for a house holding the assembly. The neighboring home in Acts opens onto a wider picture of worship inhabiting household space.
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