What Does Acts 25:23 Mean?
And on the next day, when Agrippa had come, and Bernice, with great display, and they had entered the place of hearing with the commanders of thousands and the men who stand out in the city, at Festus's command Paul was led.
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 on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus’ commandment Paul was brought forth.THE KEY
The room is arranged around visible rank, but Paul enters only when he is led before its hearers.
THE MEANING
The scene puts splendor and rank on display around a public hearing. Agrippa and Bernice arrive with the leading men of the city, while Paul is brought in at Festus’s command. The verse lets you see how ceremony can surround a hearing while one person is summoned into view.
THE ROOT
ἤχθη
ēchthē
GROWS FROM
ἀγ- (ag-), from ἄγω (agō)
to lead, bring, or conduct
The verb is passive: Paul is the one led into the room, at Festus’s command. Its word family also names gathering and leading away, making his entrance an act of being conducted into a public hearing.
ALSO GROWS
synágō: gather together
συνάγω
It shares the ἄγω (agō) family of leading or bringing; here the room gathers people around Paul as he is brought in.
apágō: lead away, bring away
ἀπάγω
It carries the same sense of conducting a person from one place to another, clarifying the movement in “was brought forth.”
φαντασίας
phantasías
GROWS FROM
φαντ-
phant-
appearance, display; making something visible
“great display” in this verse is phantasías. The Greek names a conspicuous display: the ceremony makes status visible before the hearing begins. Its word family keeps the idea of appearance in view, sharpening how the scene stages who is seen before Paul is brought in.
ALSO GROWS
phantázō: make visible, display
φαντάζω
The verb shares the display sense behind the conspicuous ceremony surrounding Agrippa and Bernice.
phántasma: apparition, appearance
φάντασμα
This related word preserves the family’s focus on what appears or is made visible.
ἀκροατήριον
akroatḗrion
GROWS FROM
ἀκροα- (akroa-), from ἀκροάομαι (akroáomai)
to listen or hear attentively
“place of hearing” in this verse is akroatḗrion. The Greek names the room by what happens there: it is a place for hearing. With prominent citizens gathered and Paul led in, the scene is arranged around an audience as well as around rank.
ALSO GROWS
akroatḗs: hearer, listener
ἀκροατής
The audience hall’s name shares its listening root with the person who hears.
akróasis: hearing, listening
ἀκρόασις
This noun names the act for which the room is gathered.
THE PATTERN
A public hearing gathers visible authority around a person brought before it.
Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him.Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus said to him, You say so.After five days Ananias, the first of the priests, stepped down with certain of the older ones, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who brought the charges to light before the one who goes before, against Paul.THE THREAD
Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was early. They themselves did not enter the praetorium, so that they would not be stained, but so that they could eat the Passover.John uses ἤγαγον (ēgagon), from ἄγω (agō), the same verb family as “was brought forth” here. Jesus is led to a judgment hall, and Paul is led into a hearing; the repeated root connects their entrances before public authority.
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