What Does Acts 25:6 Mean?
And when he had worn away more than ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day, sitting on the raised step of judgment, he commanded Paul to be 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 when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Cæsarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought.THE KEY
The word for “judgment seat” belongs to the Greek step-and-going word family, echoing the verse’s movement down to Caesarea before Paul is summoned before authority.
THE MEANING
Power becomes concrete here: a seated ruler gives an order, and Paul is brought within reach of judgment. The waiting ends with a person summoned into the space where authority acts.
THE ROOT
βῆμα
bēma
GROWS FROM
βαιν- (from βαίνω, bainō)
Step, go; βῆμα can mean a step or raised platform, and in this verse, a tribunal.
“raised step of judgment” in this verse is bēma. The verse also says the ruler “went down” to Caesarea, using καταβαίνω (katabainō), from the same step-and-going word family. English presents the journey and the judgment seat as separate details, while Greek echoes movement in both: the ruler goes down, then Paul is brought before a raised place of authority.
ALSO GROWS
katabainō: Go down, descend.
καταβαίνω
The verse uses this word for the ruler’s descent to Caesarea, echoing the step-and-going family behind βῆμα.
anabainō: Go up, ascend.
ἀναβαίνω
This compound uses the same verb with a different direction, showing how Greek builds movement words from the shared step-and-going base.
THE PATTERN
Judgment takes visible form when a person is summoned before an authority seated on a raised platform.
And when he had worn away more than ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day, sitting on the raised step of judgment, he commanded Paul to be led.When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down upon the judgment step, in a place spread with stone, which in Hebrew is called Gabbatha.But why do you judge your brother? And why do you make nothing of your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
But why do you judge your brother? And why do you make nothing of your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of the Anointed One.“Judgment seat” translates the same Greek word, βῆμα (bēma), in both verses. Here Paul is summoned before a governor’s tribunal; Romans uses that word for the place before which all stand, widening the scene beyond one person’s hearing.
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