What Does Acts 21:13 Mean?
Then Paul answered, What are you doing, weeping and crushing my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the nature of the Lord Jesus.
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
Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.THE KEY
The Lord Jesus’ name, his nature, is the reason Paul accepts both bonds and death, while his heartbreak shows that resolve can still feel the cost.
THE MEANING
This verse holds grief and resolve in the same moment: bonds and death remain real, while the Lord Jesus’ nature is the stated ground of willingness. The broken heart shows that readiness does not erase love or its pain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Resolve does not require emotional numbness: the verse places heartbreak beside willingness to face death.
THE ROOT
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνοματ-
onomat-
name; the identity and character by which someone is known
The name here carries more than a label: it holds the nature of the Lord Jesus, which the verse gives as the reason for accepting the cost. The Greek word family keeps naming and being known together.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: to name or call by name
ὀνομάζω
The act of naming makes the identity carried by the name audible.
onomastos: named, renowned
ὀνομαστός
Being renowned is being known through the name others speak.
δεθῆναι
dethēnai
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
to tie or bind
“be bound” in this verse is dethēnai. The verse names bodily restraint plainly, pairing it with death rather than softening the cost. The word family runs from binding to the bond and the bound person.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: a bond or fetter
δεσμός
The bond is the restraint that the verse says Paul is prepared to bear.
desmios: a bound person or prisoner
δέσμιος
This branch names the person who lives under the restraint described here.
ἀποθανεῖν
apothanein
GROWS FROM
θνῄσκω
thnēskō
to die
“die” in this verse is apothanein. The word takes readiness to its furthest stated cost: death itself, not a figure of speech. Its related words name both death and the act of putting someone to death.
ALSO GROWS
thanatos: death
θάνατος
This branch names the outcome Paul says he is prepared to face.
thanatoō: to put to death
θανατόω
This branch names the act that makes the stated danger concrete.
THE PATTERN
A commitment can remain steady when its cost includes danger or death.
But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor bow down to the golden image which you have set up.Go, gather together all the Jews who are found in Shushan, and fast for me. Neither eat nor drink for three days, night and day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in to the king, which is not according to the decree. And if I perish, I perish.And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of their witness, and they did not love their living souls, even unto death.THE THREAD
You will be hated by all for my nature's sake, but whoever remains under to the end, this one will be delivered.The same Greek word, ὄνομα (onoma, name), makes the name the center of both verses. Here Paul is ready for bonds and death for the Lord Jesus’ name; in Matthew, opposition comes for Jesus’ name.
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