What Does Acts 19:18 Mean?
And many who had trusted came, and spoke out in agreement, and laid their deeds open.
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 many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.THE KEY
Here trust takes a public shape: confession gives hidden practice a voice, and deeds make it visible.
THE MEANING
Trust comes into the open: people approach, acknowledge, and put their actions on display. The verse holds spoken confession and visible practice together, so what is trusted reaches into what is done.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that inward trust can remain credible while the actions connected to it stay hidden.
THE ROOT
ἐξομολογούμενοι
exomologoumenoi
GROWS FROM
ὁμολογ-
To acknowledge or confess openly; the compound carries the sense of bringing an acknowledgment out into speech.
“spoke out in agreement” in this verse is exomologoumenoi. The confession here is an acknowledgment brought into the open. Beside it, the verse names deeds being shown, so what was hidden becomes visible both in speech and in action.
ALSO GROWS
homología: Confession or profession.
ὁμολογία
This noun names the act of acknowledgment that the verse presents as spoken openly.
homologeō: To confess, acknowledge, or agree.
ὁμολογέω
This related verb shares the seed of the word in the verse and emphasizes acknowledgment.
πεπιστευκότων
pepisteukotōn
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
Trust and reliability; leaning one’s weight on what is dependable.
The word points to trust rather than bare agreement. Here, people who have trusted come forward and make their actions visible, giving that inward reliance a public shape.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust or reliance.
πίστις
This noun names the trust expressed by the people in the verse.
pistos: Firm, steady, trustworthy.
πιστός
This related word connects trust with what can bear weight and prove reliable.
πράξεις
praxeis
GROWS FROM
πρασσ-
Doing, carrying out, or practicing.
The deeds are concrete acts and practices, not a vague inner state. Placed beside confession, they show that acknowledgment brings actual patterns of action into view.
ALSO GROWS
prassō: To do, carry out, or practice.
πράσσω
This verb is the action behind the noun for deeds used in the verse.
pragma: A thing done, affair, or matter.
πρᾶγμα
This related word also traces an event or matter back to what has been done.
THE PATTERN
Trust moves into open acknowledgment, where words and actions bring what was hidden into view.
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.For with the heart one trusts toward alignment, and with the mouth one says the same toward deliverance.If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.THE THREAD
If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.Acts uses ἐξομολογέω (exomologeō, openly acknowledge or confess), while 1 John uses ὁμολογέω (homologeō, confess or acknowledge), a closely related word. In 1 John, confession is joined to release and cleansing; in Acts, deeds are shown alongside the acknowledgment.
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