What Does Acts 26:3 Mean?
Especially because you are one who knows all the customs and the questions sought out among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me with slowness to heat.
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
Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.THE KEY
This verse asks expertise to become patient listening: knowing the disputed subject does not pre-empt hearing the person speaking.
THE MEANING
You may know the customs and questions, yet still need room for another person’s account to unfold. Here knowledge stands beside patient listening: expertise does not erase the need to hear this particular voice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that familiarity with a subject lets you reach a verdict before hearing someone’s account.
THE ROOT
μακροθύμως
makrothymōs
GROWS FROM
μακροθυμ-
makrothym-
Long restraint; slow to heat.
“with slowness to heat” in this verse is makrothymōs. The word carries the sense of a long interval before heat rises. Here, patient hearing names the listener’s pace, not just the length of the speech.
ALSO GROWS
makrothymia: Patience or forbearance.
μακροθυμία
It is the same family as the adverb in this verse, naming the sustained restraint that makes patient hearing possible.
makrothymeō: To remain patient or forbear.
μακροθυμέω
This verb shows the same root as an ongoing posture, rather than a brief pause.
γνωστήν
gnōstēn
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
Know, perceive.
“one who knows” in this verse is gnōstēn. The word points to familiarity with the customs and questions, a knowing that comes through encounter. Even that familiarity does not replace hearing the account being offered now.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: Knowledge or understanding.
γνῶσις
It shows the knowledge associated with the same word family, which the verse places alongside a fresh act of listening.
gnōstos: Known or familiar.
γνωστός
Its sense of familiarity clarifies why Agrippa is described as expert in these customs and questions.
ζητημάτων
zētēmatōn
GROWS FROM
ζητέω
zēteō
Seek, inquire.
“questions sought out” in this verse is zētēmatōn. The questions are ζητήματα (zētēmata, matters under inquiry), from ζητέω (zēteō, to seek). The verse places expertise amid active inquiry, where patient hearing still matters.
ALSO GROWS
zētēma: A question, issue, or disputed matter.
ζήτημα
It is the singular form behind the questions named in the verse.
zētēsis: An inquiry or debate.
ζήτησις
This branch shows how the same seeking can take the form of an active dispute.
THE PATTERN
Patient listening delays reaction long enough for another person’s account to be heard.
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.THE THREAD
And hold the slowness to heat of our Lord as deliverance, just as our beloved brother Paul also has written to you according to the wisdom given to him;“Longsuffering” comes from the same Greek family, μακροθυμ- (makrothym-, long restraint; slow to heat), as “patiently” in Acts. Acts shows that quality shaping how one person hears; Peter names it as a quality of the Lord.
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