What Does Acts 25:14 Mean?
And when they had been there many days, Festus laid out Paul's case before the king, saying, There is a certain man left bound by Felix.
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 they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul’s cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix:THE KEY
The man left behind is still there: his condition becomes the matter laid before a king.
THE MEANING
You can remain held by a condition after the person who placed you there has moved on. That condition can still be named and carried into the view of someone with authority; being left behind does not make you disappear from the account.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that being left behind means being forgotten: the man left in bonds remains the very matter spoken before the king.
THE ROOT
καταλελειμμένος
kataleleimmenos
GROWS FROM
λείπω
leipō
To leave behind, be absent, or be lacking.
The Greek form describes someone left behind who remains in that condition. The same root can name what remains or what is lacking, holding both the departure and its residue together.
ALSO GROWS
kataleipō: To leave behind or forsake.
καταλείπω
It shares the root in the phrase about Felix leaving Paul bound, linking departure with what remains afterward.
leimma: What remains; a remnant.
λείμμα
It shows the other side of leaving: the person or thing still present after something has passed away.
elleipō: To be lacking or fall short.
ἐλλείπω
It reveals the root’s reach from leaving something absent to naming what is missing.
ἀνέθετο
anetheto
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
To put, place, or set.
“laid out” in this verse is anetheto. The verb behind “declared” carries the sense of laying a matter before someone. Festus places Paul’s case within the king’s hearing; the word pictures the movement of a hidden condition into view.
ALSO GROWS
epitithēmi: To place or lay something upon.
ἐπιτίθημι
The shared root makes the act of speaking feel like placement: something is set before another person.
paratithēmi: To set before, present, or entrust.
παρατίθημι
It echoes the act of presenting a matter for another to consider.
δέσμιος
desmios
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
To bind or tie.
“left bound” in this verse is desmios. The Greek calls Paul a bound person, making restraint part of how he is presented to the king. The word holds the physical bond and the person under it in the same image.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: A bond or chain.
δεσμός
It names the restraint that defines Paul’s present condition.
desmōtēs: A person held in bonds; a prisoner.
δεσμώτης
It shows how the same root names a person through the binding that holds them.
THE PATTERN
A person held in confinement can still be brought into the hearing of authority.
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they ran him out of the pit. He shaved himself, changed his garments, and came in to Pharaoh.Then Agrippa said to Paul, You are given the turn to speak for yourself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself.THE THREAD
But when two years were filled, Porcius Festus took hold of Felix's place. And Felix, willing to lay down favor upon the Jews, left Paul bound.Acts 24:27 uses the same root, καταλείπω (kataleipō, “leave behind”), in the words “left Paul bound.” Here the image returns in καταλελειμμένος: the departure leaves a person still bound, now named before the king.
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