What Does Acts 20:15 Mean?
And we sailed away from there, and came opposite Chios on the coming day; on the day after, we came alongside Samos, and stayed at Trogyllium; and on the day held next to it we came to Miletus.
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 we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus.THE KEY
This itinerary counts staying as part of the journey, not as a gap between movements.
THE MEANING
A journey through your life includes arrival and staying as well as forward motion. The pause belongs to the route, and the next day can still come after it.
THE ROOT
μείναντες
meínantes
GROWS FROM
μεν-
men-
To stay, remain, or continue in a place.
“stayed” in this verse is meínantes. The Greek verb under “tarried” is the same word-family as “abide.” Its place in this itinerary gives the stay at Trogyllium a clear part in the journey: the route includes remaining, not only sailing and arriving.
ALSO GROWS
monē: A dwelling place or place to remain.
μονή
This noun grows from the same stay/remain family, giving the pause in the itinerary the sense of being somewhere, not simply passing through.
emmenō: To remain in or continue in.
ἐμμένω
This compound keeps the root’s sense of staying; here, the simpler verb marks a stop within a route that continues the next day.
THE PATTERN
A journey unfolds in stages, with stopping held inside the route alongside arrival and moving on.
And he came upon a certain place, and lodged there all night, because the sun had come in; and he took stones from that place and set them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.By the mouth of the LORD the children of Israel pulled up, and by the mouth of the LORD they pitched; as long as the cloud settled upon the dwelling, they pitched their tents.But they pressed him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day has already leaned. And he went in to stay with them.THE THREAD
Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it stays in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.“Abide” translates the same Greek verb, μένω (menō), as “tarried” here. The word can describe a stop along a journey or a branch remaining in the vine: in both, staying is a real form of being present.
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