What Does Acts 25:27 Mean?
For it seems to me without word to send a bound man, and not also to mark the charges laid against 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
For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.THE KEY
An accusation must travel with the person it confines, or the sending has no coherent account.
THE MEANING
A label placed on you cannot substitute for the reason behind it. The case must be made legible; while the charges remain unnamed, sending you forward has no reasonable account.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being called a prisoner does not make the accusation against you self-evident or proven.
THE ROOT
ἄλογον
álogon
GROWS FROM
ἀ- + λόγος (a- + lógos)
λόγος (lógos) means word, account, or reason; the privative ἀ- (a-) marks what is without reason or a coherent account.
“without word” in this verse is álogon. The word translated “unreasonable” carries the sense of something without a reasoned account. The problem is not simply that a prisoner is being sent; the act has no intelligible basis if the charges are left unsaid.
ALSO GROWS
lógos: Word, account, reason.
λόγος
The verse’s concern is whether a coherent account accompanies the person’s confinement.
logízomai: Reckon, consider, take into account.
λογίζομαι
This related word makes reason an act of accounting: the charges belong among the facts that must be considered.
σημαίνω
sēmainō
GROWS FROM
σημ- / σῆμα (sēm- / sēma)
σῆμα (sēma) means sign or mark; σημαίνω (sēmainō) means to indicate or make known.
To signify is to mark something so it can be recognized. The charges cannot remain an unseen burden attached to the prisoner; they have to be indicated clearly enough to be understood.
ALSO GROWS
sēma: Sign, mark, token.
σῆμα
A charge must be marked out as the stated reason for the restraint, not left as an invisible assumption.
sēmeion: Sign, distinguishing mark.
σημεῖον
This related word emphasizes something made recognizable, matching the need for the charges to be made clear.
αἰτίας
aitías
GROWS FROM
αἰτ-
ait-
The stem αἰτ- carries the sense of cause or reason; αἰτία (aitía) can also mean an accusation or charge.
“charges” in this verse is aitías. The word holds cause and accusation together: the charge is supposed to state why the person is confined. Without that link, custody is detached from an account of what supposedly caused it.
ALSO GROWS
aítios: Responsible, liable, or the cause of something.
αἴτιος
This related word connects a stated charge with the claim that someone is responsible.
aitiáomai: Accuse or bring a charge against.
αἰτιάομαι
The accusation is an act of assigning a cause or responsibility, which must be stated rather than presumed.
THE PATTERN
A person is not rightly carried into judgment by a label alone: the accusation must be heard and supported.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.Does our instruction judge a man before it hears him, and know what he does?Do not take up an accusation against an elder, unless it rests upon two or three witnesses.THE THREAD
He said this, showing what death he was about to die.John uses the same verb, σημαίνω (sēmainō), meaning to indicate or make known. The shared word links making charges clear with making an outcome visible: what is about to happen is brought into signs and words.
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