What Does Acts 21:40 Mean?
And when he had given him leave, Paul stood on the steps, and shook his hand toward the people. And when a great hush came, he spoke to them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,
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 had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,THE KEY
The word for beckoning comes from “to shake”: before Paul speaks, a moving hand and a great silence make room for language.
THE MEANING
A voice reaches you through gesture and speech: attention gathers, silence opens, and words arrive in a language the listeners recognize. Listening is more than the absence of noise; it is the space that lets speech meet another person.
THE ROOT
κατέσεισε
katéseise
GROWS FROM
σείω
seíō
To shake or move.
“shook his hand” in this verse is katéseise. Κατέσεισε comes from σείω, to shake or move; “beckoned” preserves the signal but not its motion-root. The verse places the hand’s movement before the great silence and the spoken word.
ALSO GROWS
seíō: To shake, move.
σείω
This is the motion carried by the hand gesture that precedes Paul’s speech.
seismós: A shaking; an earthquake.
σεισμός
The same root names a much larger shaking, making the small motion of the beckoning hand more vivid.
διαλέκτῳ
dialéktō
GROWS FROM
λέγω
légō
To say or speak.
The Greek word behind “tongue” is διάλεκτος, meaning a language or dialect. It names the shared form of speech through which Paul’s words can meet the people listening.
ALSO GROWS
diálektos: Language, dialect.
διάλεκτος
This is the word used for the Hebrew tongue Paul speaks to the crowd.
diálogos: Conversation, discourse.
διάλογος
It shares the speech family and echoes the movement from crowd noise to a voice that can be heard.
THE PATTERN
Speech becomes hearable when it is made intelligible to the listener.
When this voice arose, the crowd came together and was poured into confusion, because each one heard them speaking in his own tongue.So they read aloud from the scroll of the instruction of God, spread open, and set the sense in place, and caused the people to perceive in the reading.So also you, unless you give through the tongue a word with a clear sign, how shall what is spoken be known? For you will be speaking into the air.THE THREAD
And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew speech, they settled into even deeper quiet, and he said,The next verse says the crowd grows quieter when they hear him speaking in Hebrew. The silence is not empty: the language itself opens space for hearing.
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