What Does Acts 28:18 Mean?
They, having examined me, wished to let me go, because there was no cause of death in me.
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
Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me.THE KEY
The examination finds no cause for death, making release the fitting outcome.
THE MEANING
This verse gives you a measure for accusation: examination can find no cause that warrants death. Continued restraint does not create the cause that is missing. Release stands as the fitting result of a finding that there is no basis for death.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being held does not prove that you deserve death; the finding here is that no cause of death is present.
THE ROOT
ἀπολῦσαι
apolysai
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
to loosen, untie, release
“let me go” in this verse is apolysai. The Greek word for release grows from the root for loosening. The sentence links release to the finding that no cause of death is present: it pictures restraint coming undone when the examination finds no basis for death.
ALSO GROWS
apolyō: release, dismiss
ἀπολύω
This is the verb in its dictionary form; Acts uses its infinitive form for the release that follows the examination.
lysis: loosening, release
λύσις
This related noun makes the image of something held fast becoming loose explicit.
ἀνακρίναντές
anakrinantes
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
to distinguish, judge, decide
“examined” in this verse is anakrinantes. Examination, judgment, and the judge all grow from the same Greek root of discernment. Scrutiny does not automatically mean condemnation: here it reaches a finding that does not warrant death.
ALSO GROWS
anakrinō: examine, investigate
ἀνακρίνω
This is the verb used here: the release follows a close examination.
krisis: judgment, decision
κρίσις
The same root names the judgment reached after weighing a matter.
kritēs: judge
κριτής
The root also names the one who makes a judgment, showing how examination and decision belong to one word family.
THE PATTERN
When a charge is examined and no cause for death is found, condemnation lacks its stated basis.
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.Pilate said to him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Judeans, and said to them, I find no cause in him at all.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
From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.John uses the same verb, ἀπολύω (apolyō), for release as Acts 28:18. Read together, the verses show the hinge: examination supports release, yet pressure can still hold it back.
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