What Does Acts 20:27 Mean?
For I have not drawn back from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.
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
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.THE KEY
The hidden hinge is that “shunned” here and “kept back” nearby translate the same verb: declaring the whole counsel means refusing both retreat and withholding.
THE MEANING
You meet a claim of complete disclosure: nothing of the counsel is held back by the one speaking. The sentence joins no retreat from declaring with no fragment substituted for the whole. Its completeness concerns the counsel declared here, not possession of every mystery.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that faithful speech can offer only a safe or partial portion: the verse joins retreat from speaking with withholding what is entrusted.
THE ROOT
ὑπεστειλάμην
hypesteilamēn
GROWS FROM
ὑποστέλλω
hypostellō
to withdraw, shrink back, or hold back
“drawn back” in this verse is hypesteilamēn. The KJV renders this verb “kept back” in Acts 20:20 and “shunned” here; elsewhere it can mean “draw back.” The verse makes completeness a matter of not withdrawing from declaring what is entrusted.
ALSO GROWS
hypostellō: withheld or held back
ὑποστέλλω
Acts 20:20 uses the same verb for withholding nothing that was profitable to the hearers.
hypostellō: withdraw or shrink back
ὑποστέλλω
Hebrews 10:38 uses the verb for drawing back, showing the retreat contained in “shunned.”
βουλή
boulē
GROWS FROM
βουλ-
boul-
to will, intend, or deliberate
Counsel here carries more than the sense of advice: it can name an intention or purpose. Its word family links counsel with both willing and deliberating, so what is declared is a considered purpose, not scattered sayings.
ALSO GROWS
boulomai: will, wish, or intend
βούλομαι
This branch shows the element of intention within the counsel being declared.
bouleuomai: deliberate or take counsel
βουλεύομαι
This branch carries the sense of purpose formed through deliberation.
ἀναγγεῖλαι
anangeilai
GROWS FROM
ἀγγέλλω
angellō
to announce or report
“declaring” in this verse is anangeilai. The verb names announcement: counsel moves outward in speech toward its hearers. Related forms keep that outward motion, whether proclaiming publicly or reporting what has been received.
ALSO GROWS
katangellō: proclaim or announce
καταγγέλλω
This related form highlights the public, outward character of declaring.
apangellō: report or announce
ἀπαγγέλλω
Like “declare,” it carries what is known outward to others.
THE PATTERN
What is entrusted as God’s counsel is disclosed fully, while what God keeps secret remains God’s.
and how I drew back from nothing that would help you, but declared to you and taught you in the open, and house by house,No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for all that I heard from my Father I have shown you.The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the uncovered things belong to us and to our children for the ages, that we may do all the words of this instruction.THE THREAD
and how I drew back from nothing that would help you, but declared to you and taught you in the open, and house by house,Acts 20:20 uses the same verb, ὑποστέλλω (hypostellō), meaning “withdraw or hold back,” in “kept back nothing.” Here the KJV renders that verb “shunned,” and together the verses show one movement: no withdrawing from speech and no withholding from its hearers.
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