What Does Acts 2:13 Mean?
Others, mocking, said, These men are full of new wine.
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
Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.THE KEY
The accusation reveals how quickly an unfamiliar movement is reduced to a familiar explanation.
THE MEANING
Some hear what they cannot explain and call it drunkenness. Their ridicule tells you how they interpret the moment; it does not, by itself, tell you what the moment means.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that ridicule proves what is really happening dissolves here: the accusation records the mockers’ interpretation, not the event’s meaning.
THE ROOT
χλευάζοντες
chleuazontes
GROWS FROM
χλευ-
chleu-
jest, mockery
“mocking” in this verse is chleuazontes. The Greek stem names ridicule: the speakers are not simply offering a neutral explanation but making the event an object of mockery. The same verb appears when some mock the resurrection in Acts 17:32, linking both scenes through the same response to a message that exceeds the hearers’ frame.
ALSO GROWS
chleuē: mockery; jest
χλεύη
The related noun names the response itself as a jest, rather than an explanation of what the speakers are saying.
chleuazōn: one who mocks; mocking
χλευάζων
This related participle identifies a person by the act of ridicule, as the verse does before quoting the accusation.
THE PATTERN
When an expression exceeds familiar categories, observers can dismiss it as drunkenness, madness, or mockery.
Now Hannah spoke to her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk.And many of them said, He has a demon and is raving. Why do you hear him?When they heard of the standing up from the dead, some jeered, and others said, We will hear you again about this.THE THREAD
When they heard of the standing up from the dead, some jeered, and others said, We will hear you again about this.The Greek verb for “mocked” here is the same verb used for “mocking” in Acts 2:13. The shared word connects two moments when an unfamiliar message is met with ridicule.
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