What Does Acts 21:31 Mean?
As they sought to kill him, a report went up to the commander of a thousand, that all Jerusalem was poured into confusion.
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 as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.THE KEY
The word behind “uproar” pictures a pouring-together: the attempt to kill one person spills into the confusion of an entire city.
THE MEANING
A threat against one person does not remain private: it gathers a whole city into confusion and reaches the authority overseeing the crowd. Violence against one body becomes a crisis the whole city can feel.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The danger to one person is private and contained.
THE ROOT
συγχύνεται
synchynetai
GROWS FROM
χέω
To pour; with σύν, to pour together, mix, or confound.
The Greek word translated “is in an uproar” carries an image of things being poured together until they are confused. The verse shows violence aimed at one person becoming a disorder that engulfs the whole city.
ALSO GROWS
syncheō: Pour together; confuse or confound.
συγχέω
This is the verb family behind the verse’s word for uproar, revealing the image beneath the English.
synchysis: Confusion or disorder.
σύγχυσις
Acts 19:29 uses this related noun for a city filled with confusion, showing the same root image at work in another public disturbance.
ekcheō: Pour out.
ἐκχέω
This form shares the root of pouring; its prefix changes the direction, while the root keeps the image of something flowing outward.
THE PATTERN
When shared order is overwhelmed, disorder spreads beyond its immediate targets and takes hold of the whole city.
And the whole city was poured full of uproar, and having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's fellow travelers, they rushed with one passion into the theater.Therefore its name was called Babel, the mixing, because there the LORD mixed up the lip of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them across the face of all the earth.Swallow, O Lord, and split their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.THE THREAD
Therefore its name was called Babel, the mixing, because there the LORD mixed up the lip of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them across the face of all the earth.The Greek verb συγχέω (syncheō, to pour together or confound) appears in the Greek form of “confound” here and shares the word family behind “uproar” in Acts 21:31. Babel’s language is confounded and its people scattered; in Acts, violence draws Jerusalem into a citywide disturbance.
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