What Does Acts 20:19 Mean?
Serving the Lord with all lowness of mind, and with many tears and testings, which came upon me in the plots cast against me by the Jews;
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
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:THE KEY
The verse places humility inside the tears and danger of service, not outside them.
THE MEANING
Your service to the Lord can include a lowered mind, many tears, and trials arising through deliberate opposition. Grief and pressure do not erase the service taking place; the verse lets all of them be true at once.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sincere service must look composed or be free from opposition.
THE ROOT
ταπεινοφροσύνης
tapeinophrosynēs
GROWS FROM
ταπειν- (tapein-, lowly) + φρεν- (phren-, mind or disposition)
Lowliness joined to the mind or inner disposition.
“lowness of mind” in this verse is tapeinophrosynēs. The Greek word joins lowliness to the mind, so humility names an inward posture, not just outward deference. Its word family also speaks of being lowered, placing that posture within the very service the verse describes.
ALSO GROWS
tapeinoō: To lower or humble.
ταπεινόω
This verb shares the lowliness in humility and shows how the word family describes being brought low.
phroneō: To think or hold a disposition.
φρονέω
This branch carries the mind or disposition within the compound word.
tapeinos: Lowly or humble.
ταπεινός
The adjective names the lowly quality that shapes the mind’s posture.
πειρασμοῖς
peirasmois
GROWS FROM
πειρα-
peira-
Testing or putting to proof, with the word’s sense extending to trial or temptation.
“testings” in this verse is peirasmois. πειρασμός (peirasmos, trial or temptation) can name both testing and temptation. Here the phrase links these trials to hostile plots, giving the word a concrete setting of pressure coming against the servant.
ALSO GROWS
peirazō: To test, put to proof, or tempt.
πειράζω
This verb shows the testing action carried by the word family.
apeirastos: Untried or not subject to temptation.
ἀπείραστος
The related form preserves the same test-and-temptation word family in a negated form.
ἐπιβουλαῖς
epiboulais
GROWS FROM
ἐπί (epi-, upon or against) + βουλή (boulē, plan or counsel)
A plan or plot directed against someone.
“plots cast against me” in this verse is epiboulais. The phrase carries the image of lying in wait, and its Greek word also names a plot set against someone. The word’s plan-and-counsel stem gives the opposition a deliberate shape.
ALSO GROWS
boulē: Plan, counsel, or purpose.
βουλή
This noun supplies the plan within the word for a plot.
bouleuō: To deliberate or plan.
βουλεύω
This verb shows the active planning behind the opposition named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Service can remain tender and resolute while sorrow and opposition are present.
Those who sow in tears reap in a ringing cry.For out of much pressure and a heart held tight I wrote to you with many tears, not so that you would be pained, but so that you might perceive the overflowing love I hold toward you.But even after we had suffered before and been outraged at Philippi, as you know, we found our whole voice in our God to speak to you the good news of God in a great wrestling.THE THREAD
And found in the outline of a human, he brought himself low, and became responsive unto death, even death on the cross.The Greek verb ἐταπείνωσεν (etapeinōsen, “humbled”) shares the ταπειν- (tapein-, “lowly”) stem with “humility of mind” here. It opens the shared root as a lowered posture that can remain present through service and pain.
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