What Does Acts 28:7 Mean?
In the same quarters were the fields of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius, who took us in and hosted us kindly for three days.
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
In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.THE KEY
The word for “lodged” grows from the word for “stranger” or “guest,” so the travelers are received as guests, not merely given shelter.
THE MEANING
Welcome takes shape through real space, time, and considerate care: the travelers are received and lodged for three days. The verse holds that kind of welcome open as a living reality, where a household makes room for others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A stranger must first become familiar or useful before being welcomed; here, welcome begins with their arrival.
THE ROOT
ἐξένισεν
exenisen
GROWS FROM
ξεν-
xen-
stranger; guest
“hosted us” in this verse is exenisen. The root ξεν- holds both the stranger and the guest: the person arriving from outside becomes the person received into a household. “Lodged” therefore carries more than shelter; the travelers receive the place and care of guests for three days.
ALSO GROWS
xenos: stranger; guest
ξένος
The same word can name someone from outside and someone welcomed as a guest, joining arrival with reception.
philoxenia: hospitality; love of strangers
φιλοξενία
This word makes the welcome explicit: hospitality is care directed toward the stranger.
xenodocheō: receive or lodge strangers
ξενοδοχέω
This related verb names the act of hosting strangers, showing how the root moves from the guest to the welcome given.
THE PATTERN
Hospitality turns another person’s need into shared space, time, and provision.
Let a little water be taken, please, and wash your feet, and lean yourselves under the tree.And when she was immersed, and her household, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me steady in the Lord, come into my house and stay there. And she pressed us.Do not let slip the opening of your home to strangers, for by it some have sheltered messengers without knowing it.THE THREAD
Do not let slip the opening of your home to strangers, for by it some have sheltered messengers without knowing it.Hebrews uses φιλοξενία (philoxenia), hospitality or love of strangers, which shares the ξεν- (xen-) root with “lodged” here. The shared root lets the verse’s “stranger” become a “guest” through the act of welcome.
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