What Does Acts 21:18 Mean?
On the next day Paul went in with us to James, and all the older ones were at hand.
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 the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.THE KEY
The elders are not merely present: the Greek pictures them arriving alongside the others, making presence a movement into shared company.
THE MEANING
The scene shows shared presence taking shape as Paul comes with his companions to James and the elders arrive there. A gathering comes into being through people entering the same space.
THE ROOT
παρεγένοντο
paregenonto
GROWS FROM
γίνομαι
γίνομαι (ginomai) means “to become, happen, or come to be.” In παρεγένοντο, the prefix παρά adds the sense of coming alongside or arriving.
“were at hand” in this verse is paregenonto. The English “were present” sounds static, while the Greek verb carries arrival: the elders have come alongside into the gathering. Presence here is something that comes to be through people arriving together.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: birth, origin, or coming into being
γένεσις
This related γ-ν consonantal family makes arrival resonate with coming into being: the gathering takes shape as people come together.
gegonen: has come to be, has happened
γέγονεν
This form shares the γίνομαι family and shows becoming as a completed arrival into a state or event.
THE PATTERN
Shared presence takes shape when people gather into one place.
And Jacob called to his sons, and said, Gather yourselves, that I may tell you what shall come upon you in the hindmost days.A Song of degrees of David. Look, how good and how sweet it is for brothers to settle also together!When the day of Pentecost was fully filled, they were all together in one place.THE THREAD
At that very hour I sent to you; and you have done well in coming alongside. Now, then, we are all here before God, to hear all that has been commanded you by the Lord.“Thou art come” renders παρεγένου (paregenou, “you arrived”), from the same παραγίνομαι (paraginomai, “come alongside, arrive”) family as this verse’s παρεγένοντο (paregenonto, “they arrived”). In both verses, presence emerges through people coming into company.
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