What Does Acts 23:14 Mean?
And they came to the chiefs of the set-apart ones and the older ones, and said, "We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will taste nothing until we have slain Paul."
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 they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.THE KEY
They turn a self-imposed curse into a clock for murder: no food until Paul is dead.
THE MEANING
Here, hunger becomes a deadline: these men refuse food until Paul is killed. Their curse makes murder feel like an obligation without changing what the act is.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a solemn vow makes its end righteous; their curse intensifies their commitment, while the end remains murder.
THE ROOT
ἀναθέματι ἀνεθεματίσαμεν ἑαυτούς
anathemati anethematisamen heautous
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
to put, place, or set
“bound ourselves under a great curse” in this verse is anathemati anethematisamen heautous. The Greek repeats the curse as both noun and verb: literally, they place a curse on themselves and curse themselves. The language makes their vow sound like a penalty laid upon their own lives, binding their fast to the death they intend.
ALSO GROWS
anathema: something devoted; in this context, a curse or accursed thing
ἀνάθεμα
This noun names the curse they invoke as they place the penalty on themselves.
epitithēmi: to place upon or lay upon
ἐπιτίθημι
Its image of laying something upon someone illuminates the self-imprecation in their vow.
thesis: a placing or position
θέσις
The word family carries the sense of setting something in place, as their vow fixes a condition for themselves.
γεύσασθαι μηδέν
geusasthai mēden
GROWS FROM
γεύομαι
geuomai
to taste, partake of, or experience
The Greek says they will taste nothing. This verb also describes tasting death, so their refusal of food carries an unsettling echo of the death they mean to bring about.
ALSO GROWS
geuomai: to taste, partake, or experience
γεύομαι
This is the verb behind their refusal to taste anything until Paul is killed.
geusis: a tasting or taste
γεῦσις
The related noun keeps the concrete sense of tasting that English renders broadly as eating.
geuma: food or something tasted
γεῦμα
This branch returns the word family to what they refuse until their plot is completed.
THE PATTERN
A vow can turn an intention into an alleged obligation and make violence seem required.
And the men of Israel were pressed that day, for Saul had bound the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats bread until evening, so that I may be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted any bread.And the king was pained, yet because of the oaths and those reclining with him, he commanded it to be given her.But we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed is the one who gives a wife to Benjamin.THE THREAD
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the messengers for the suffering of death, crowned with weight and honor, so that by the favor of God he might taste death for everyone.The Greek verb behind “eat nothing” is the same verb Hebrews uses for Jesus “taste death.” The shared word links the hunger they impose on themselves to the death they intend for Paul.
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