What Does Acts 25:22 Mean?
Then Agrippa said to Festus, I also wished to hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said he, you shall hear him.
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
Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. To morrow, said he, thou shalt hear him.THE KEY
The same Greek verb for “hear” appears in both the request and the reply: firsthand hearing is promised, not just a report.
THE MEANING
The verse makes direct hearing matter: knowing a report about someone is not the same as hearing that person speak. The hearing is not withheld; the answer sets it for tomorrow.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that secondhand knowledge is equal to hearing the person directly. “The man myself” exposes the gap.
THE ROOT
ἀκούω
akouō
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
Hear; listen; receive through hearing.
Both clauses use forms of ἀκούω: Agrippa wants to hear the man, and Festus says he will hear him. This word family also includes ἀκοή, “hearing” or “report,” and ὑπακούω, “listen” or “obey”: hearing can stretch from receiving a voice toward responding to it, though this verse leaves the response open.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing; a report.
ἀκοή
The branch names both the act of hearing and a report, sharpening the difference in “the man myself”: a report is not the speaker’s own voice.
hypakouō: Listen; obey.
ὑπακούω
This branch shows how hearing can move toward response; here, the verse gives the hearing a time but leaves Agrippa’s response unstated.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places hearing before a responsible response to another person’s words.
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Does our instruction judge a man before it hears him, and know what he does?At that very hour I sent to you; and you have done well in coming alongside. Now, then, we are all here before God, to hear all that has been commanded you by the Lord.THE THREAD
Does our instruction judge a man before it hears him, and know what he does?John 7:51 uses the same ἀκούω (akouō, “hear”) word family in a question about judgment: can someone be judged before being heard? That shared root opens Agrippa’s wish to hear “the man myself” as more than curiosity, hearing the person directly comes before weighing what is said.
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