What Does Acts 23:7 Mean?
And when he had said this, a standing apart arose between the separated ones and the Sadducees, and the crowd was split apart.
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 so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.THE KEY
The dispute becomes a tear running through the whole crowd.
THE MEANING
When a claim reaches a gathering, differences beneath the surface can become visible: a dispute between two groups reaches the whole multitude. One room can hold people standing in sharply opposed places.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A multitude gathered in one place is not necessarily united in conviction; disagreement can divide it from within.
THE ROOT
ἐσχίσθη
eschisthē
GROWS FROM
σχίζω
schizō
to split, cleave, or tear
“split apart” in this verse is eschisthē. The Greek says more than that people hold different opinions: the multitude is split as something torn. The fault line runs from the two named groups into the larger gathering.
ALSO GROWS
schisma: a split, rift, or division
σχίσμα
John 7:43 uses this related noun for a division among people, showing how the word family names a break through a group.
schizō: to split or tear apart
σχίζω
Mark 15:38 uses this verb for the temple veil being torn in two; the same Greek word gives the crowd’s division the force of a tear.
στάσις
stasis
GROWS FROM
στα-/στη- (from ἵστημι, histēmi)
standing, setting, or taking a position
“a standing apart” in this verse is stasis. Dissension belongs to a word family built around standing or taking a position. With resurrection named in the immediate argument, the scene ties opposed positions to the question of who can stand again.
ALSO GROWS
histēmi: to stand, set, or establish
ἵστημι
The word family frames dissension as people taking positions against one another.
anastasis: rising or resurrection
ἀνάστασις
The surrounding argument names resurrection as the point of dispute, echoing the same stand-and-rise word family.
THE PATTERN
A claim that meets competing convictions can split a gathered people into visible sides.
And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly, and made him king over all Israel. There was none who walked after the house of David, but the tribe of Judah alone.So a split arose among the crowd because of him.But the multitude of the city was split, and some held with the Jews, and some with the sent ones.THE THREAD
And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from above to below.The verb translated “rent” is σχίζω (schizō), the same root behind the crowd being “divided” here. The shared word makes the division concrete: what is split, whether a veil or a multitude, is torn.
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