What Does Acts 26:31 Mean?
And when they had withdrawn, they spoke with one another, saying, This man does nothing of equal weight to death or to bonds.
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 they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds.THE KEY
Behind closed doors, the verdict separates accusation from consequence: no act here merits death or confinement.
THE MEANING
The judgment rests on what this man has done: nothing warrants his death or confinement. The verse holds accusation and guilt apart, and names the limit of what is due.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being accused does not, by itself, make a person deserving of punishment.
THE ROOT
δεσμῶν
desmōn
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
to bind or tie
“Bonds” names binding itself, a word family that also describes the act of binding and the person held captive. The verdict reaches beyond an abstract penalty: it says this man has done nothing that warrants his confinement.
ALSO GROWS
deō: to bind or tie
δέω
The verb names the action that makes bonds: binding someone.
desmos: a bond or fetter
δεσμός
This noun names the restraint itself, the consequence the verdict says is unwarranted.
desmios: a prisoner or person in bonds
δέσμιος
This branch shows the person made captive by binding, not merely the penalty in the abstract.
θανάτου
thanatou
GROWS FROM
θνῄσκω
thnēskō
to die
The sentence sets death beside confinement as distinct consequences, from the most final to the bodily restraint of bonds. The judgment says neither consequence fits what this man has done.
ALSO GROWS
thnēskō: to die
θνῄσκω
The verb names the event behind the sentence of death.
thanatoō: to put to death
θανατόω
This verb makes the consequence active: to cause someone to die.
thanatos: death
θάνατος
This noun names the outcome the verdict finds undeserved.
THE PATTERN
Justice weighs what a person has done before declaring what is due.
If there be a striving between men, and they come to judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall align the aligned, and condemn the restless.Then Pilate said to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.I found him charged over questions they sought in their instruction, yet nothing laid to his charge was worthy of death or of bindings.THE THREAD
I found him charged over questions they sought in their instruction, yet nothing laid to his charge was worthy of death or of bindings.The same judgment appears in the earlier report: the charge is present, yet it warrants neither death nor bonds. The Greek word for bonds, δεσμῶν (desmōn, bonds), keeps the focus on binding as a real consequence.
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