What Does Acts 21:35 Mean?
And when he came to the steps, it happened that he was lifted by the soldiers because of the force of the crowd.
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 when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.THE KEY
Here, violence takes away a person’s movement, and the word “borne” makes the body’s forced carrying visible.
THE MEANING
When violence reaches your body, it can take movement out of your hands and place you in another’s. Being carried here is a bodily consequence of force, not proof that you chose to stop moving.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being carried does not mean you chose dependence; here the crowd’s violence forces the transfer.
THE ROOT
βαστάζω
bastazō
GROWS FROM
βασταζ-
To carry or bear a load; to support or endure weight.
“lifted” in this verse is bastazō. The verb keeps the body’s weight in view: Paul is not simply moved along but borne by others because the crowd’s violence overwhelms his movement. The same verb can describe carrying another’s burden or bearing a cross, so the verb names the transfer of weight while the surrounding circumstances show its force.
ALSO GROWS
bastazōn: Bearing or carrying; used of Jesus bearing his cross in John 19:17.
βαστάζων
The same verb puts the body’s load at the center, though there Jesus bears and here Paul is borne.
bastazete: Bear or carry; used of bearing one another’s burdens in Galatians 6:2.
βαστάζετε
The verb also describes shared support, revealing how the relationship around the carrying changes its character.
βία
bia
GROWS FROM
βια-
Force or physical pressure; violence.
Here βία is force acting on a body, not merely a label for wrongdoing. Related Greek forms describe something forceful or someone pressing by force, making the crowd’s violence the immediate cause of Paul’s being carried.
ALSO GROWS
biaios: Forceful or violent; used in Acts 2:2 for the “rushing mighty wind.”
βίαιος
The related form describes force in motion, sharpening the physical pressure carried by βία here.
biastēs: A person who uses force; used in Matthew 11:12 for “the violent.”
βιαστής
This related word names the agent of force, echoing the people whose violence makes Paul’s carrying necessary.
THE PATTERN
The act of bearing transfers weight from one body to another, while the relationship determines whether that transfer is force, burden, or support.
Even to old age I AM, and to gray hair I will bear you. I have made, and I will lift, I will bear, and I will slip you free.And carrying his cross, he went out to the place called the place of a skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And carrying his cross, he went out to the place called the place of a skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.The same verb, βαστάζω (bastazō), appears for Jesus bearing the cross, while here it is used of Paul being borne by soldiers. The verb keeps the weight and bodily carrying visible: in one verse Jesus carries, and in the other Paul is carried under violence.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us