What Does Acts 21:6 Mean?
And when we had embraced one another, we stepped aboard the ship, and they went back home again.
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 we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.THE KEY
The word translated “taken our leave” is also used for greeting and embracing, so the farewell retains the shape of welcome.
THE MEANING
The verse holds departure in the language of greeting: the two sides take leave, the travelers board, and their companions return to their own place. Warmth and separation occupy the same moment without canceling each other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A goodbye does not have to mean affection has ended; here, the word for parting also carries the sense of greeting and embrace.
THE ROOT
ἀσπασάμενοι
aspasamenoi
GROWS FROM
ἀσπασ-
aspas-
Greeting or embracing in salutation; the verb can also describe taking leave.
The Greek verb is also used for greeting and embracing, while the English “taken our leave” foregrounds separation. The farewell keeps the gesture of salutation: the people recognize one another even as their paths divide.
ALSO GROWS
aspazomai: greet, welcome, salute, embrace, or take leave
ἀσπάζομαι
The verb’s range joins a welcome and a farewell in one act of salutation.
aspasmos: greeting, salutation
ἀσπασμός
This related noun names the greeting carried within the verse’s act of taking leave.
ὑπέστρεψαν
hypestrepsan
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
strephō
Turn, turn around.
“returned” in this verse is hypestrepsan. The return is described as a turn back, not merely an arrival at home. The verse sets two movements beside each other: one group turns toward the ship, while the other turns back toward its own place.
ALSO GROWS
epistrephō: turn toward, return
ἐπιστρέφω
This related verb makes the direction of a return explicit: turning toward a place or person.
apostrephō: turn away, turn aside
ἀποστρέφω
This related verb shows the same root describing a change of direction away from something.
THE PATTERN
A parting can hold affection while people move onto separate paths.
And early in the morning Laban rose, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban went away, and turned back to his place.And they lifted up their voice, and wept again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.And after the uproar stopped, Paul sent for the disciples, and embraced them, and set out to journey into Macedonia.THE THREAD
And after the uproar stopped, Paul sent for the disciples, and embraced them, and set out to journey into Macedonia.The same verb, ἀσπάζομαι (aspazomai, greet or embrace), appears here where the KJV says Paul “embraced them” before departing. In Acts 21:6, the KJV renders it as “taken our leave,” so the Greek carries the gesture of embrace into the parting.
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