What Does Acts 28:24 Mean?
And some were persuaded by what was spoken, and others would not lean their weight upon it.
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 some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.THE KEY
The same spoken words meet some as persuasion and others as a reason to withhold trust.
THE MEANING
The words reach you now, and hearing them does not predetermine your response. What is spoken can draw one hearer into trust while another remains unconvinced.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that hearing truth automatically produces trust dissolves here: the same spoken things meet trust in some hearers and refusal in others.
THE ROOT
ἐπείθοντο
epeithonto
GROWS FROM
πειθ- / πιστ- (peith- / pist-), a related Greek word family
Persuasion and trust: πείθω means to persuade or be persuaded; ἀπιστέω means to lack trust, to disbelieve.
“were persuaded” in this verse is epeithonto. Beneath the KJV’s repeated “believed,” Greek uses one verb for being persuaded and another for withholding trust. The contrast reaches beyond hearing: the same words meet different responses in the hearer.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: Persuade, win over; in the middle or passive, be persuaded.
πείθω
This is the verb behind the first “believed,” giving the response the shade of being won over by what is spoken.
pistis: Trust, reliance; leaning your full weight on.
πίστις
This related noun makes clear that belief can mean placing trust, not merely registering an idea.
apisteō: Lack trust, disbelieve.
ἀπιστέω
This is the verb behind “believed not,” naming withheld trust rather than absence of hearing.
THE PATTERN
Words and signs do not compel one uniform response; they meet hearers with differing degrees of trust.
And the LORD said to Moses, How long will this people spurn me? How long will they not lean their weight on me, for all the signs I have done in their midst?When they heard of the standing up from the dead, some jeered, and others said, We will hear you again about this.But some men stuck fast to him and leaned their full weight upon him, among whom were Dionysius of the Rock of Ares and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.THE THREAD
Even so, many among the rulers also leaned their weight on him, but because of the separated ones they did not confess him, lest they be thrown out of the gathering.John shows that trust and public confession can part ways: many trust him, yet do not speak that trust aloud. Acts 28:24 shows the same trust family meeting the words themselves with both acceptance and refusal.
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