What Does Acts 21:7 Mean?
And when we had carried our voyage through from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and embraced the brothers, and stayed with them one day.
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 finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day.THE KEY
Here the voyage finds its human destination in a day of shared presence: greeting the brethren becomes staying with them.
THE MEANING
Your arrival can become more than reaching a place: it opens into recognition, then into time shared with others. Even a single day among kin is a real form of remaining.
THE ROOT
ἐμείναμεν
emeinamen
GROWS FROM
μένω
menō
to remain, stay, or abide
“stayed” in this verse is emeinamen. The Greek verb is μένω (menō), meaning “remain, stay, abide”; the scene supplies its duration. Here it names a stay of one day, showing that even brief shared presence is a form of remaining.
ALSO GROWS
monē: dwelling place, abode
μονή
This related word carries remaining into the place where one stays.
epimenō: continue, remain
ἐπιμένω
This related verb extends the same idea of staying through time.
ἀδελφούς
adelphous
GROWS FROM
ἀδελφός
adelphos
brother or sibling; traditionally understood as one sharing the womb
“brethren” in this verse is adelphous. The people they greet are named as siblings, not merely acquaintances. Their arrival becomes an encounter among kin, and the next phrase gives that recognition time to become shared presence.
ALSO GROWS
adelphē: sister
ἀδελφή
The feminine form names a sibling within the same kinship language.
adelphotēs: brotherhood, siblinghood
ἀδελφότης
This related noun gathers individual siblings into a shared kinship.
πλοῦν
ploun
GROWS FROM
πλέω
pleō
to sail, travel by sea
The Greek phrase names a voyage from Tyre, giving “course” the concrete texture of sea travel. The completed sailing brings the travelers to a port, where the verse turns from navigation to the people they greet.
ALSO GROWS
plous: voyage, sailing
πλοῦς
This noun names the sea journey completed in the verse.
ploion: ship, vessel
πλοῖον
This related word names what carries a voyage across the water.
THE PATTERN
Arrival becomes fellowship when travelers are received into shared presence.
Let a little water be taken, please, and wash your feet, and lean yourselves under the tree. And I will take a morsel of bread, and prop up your hearts. After that you shall pass on, for therefore you have crossed over to your servant. And they said, So you shall make it, as you have spoken.Share in common the needs of the set apart. Pursue the love of strangers.Do not let slip the opening of your home to strangers, for by it some have sheltered messengers without knowing it.THE THREAD
Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it stays in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.The verb behind “abode” is μένω (menō), meaning “remain” or “abide,” the same verb repeated here. Acts uses it for one day in company; John uses it for abiding in the vine, while context gives each staying its duration and depth.
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