What Does Acts 25:13 Mean?
And after certain days, King Agrippa and Bernice came down to Caesarea to embrace Festus.
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 after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came unto Cæsarea to salute Festus.THE KEY
The Greek word for “salute” carries the sense of welcoming someone, so the visit itself is an act of recognition.
THE MEANING
Agrippa and Bernice arrive in Caesarea to greet Festus. Their greeting gives the meeting a public shape before anything else is said about it. Here, acknowledgment is something people travel to enact.
THE ROOT
ἀσπασάμενοι
aspasamenoi
GROWS FROM
ἀσπασ- (from ἀσπάζομαι, aspazomai)
to greet or welcome; in some uses, to embrace
The word translated “salute” is ἀσπασάμενοι (aspasamenoi), from ἀσπάζομαι (aspazomai): to greet or welcome, sometimes to embrace. English “salute” can sound like a formal gesture, while the Greek word presents greeting as a welcome that meets another person; the visit itself becomes acknowledgment.
ALSO GROWS
aspasmos: greeting
ἀσπασμός
The related noun names the greeting itself, making the shared root visible in both the act and the encounter.
aspazomai: to greet, welcome
ἀσπάζομαι
This verb appears in other scenes of arrival and meeting, linking Festus’s greeting with a wider pattern of people welcoming one another.
THE PATTERN
A greeting makes recognition visible by turning arrival into relationship.
And he lifted his eyes and saw, and look, three men stood beside him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent opening, and bowed down to the earth.And she entered the house of Zacharias, and embraced Elisabeth.Embrace one another with a set-apart kiss. The assemblies of the anointed one embrace you.THE THREAD
And when we had carried our voyage through from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and embraced the brothers, and stayed with them one day.The same Greek verb for greeting appears when the travelers reach Ptolemais and greet the believers. In both scenes, arrival becomes a personal encounter through welcome.
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