What Does Acts 3:12 Mean?
And when Peter saw it, he answered the people, Men of Israel, why are you astonished at this? Or why do you stretch your gaze upon us, as though by our own power or reverence we had made this man walk?
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 Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?THE KEY
The healed man’s walk does not make Peter powerful or holy; it exposes how quickly a crowd mistakes proximity for source.
THE MEANING
Visible change draws attention toward the people nearest it, as though their capacity or devotion made it happen. Peter names that attribution as misplaced: the man’s walking is real, but it does not come from their own power or holiness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A visible healing proves that the person closest to it possesses special power or moral standing.
THE ROOT
δύναμις
dýnamis
GROWS FROM
δυν-
dyn-
Ability or capacity to do.
The word carries the sense of ability, not a power Peter can claim as his own possession. His question separates being near the healing from being its source.
ALSO GROWS
dýnamai: Be able, have the capacity.
δύναμαι
This verb shares the same root and makes the idea of power a question of ability.
dynatós: Able, capable, powerful.
δυνατός
This branch describes someone as having capacity, the very status Peter refuses to claim for himself.
εὐσέβεια
eusébeia
GROWS FROM
σεβ-
seb-
Reverence; the word is formed with εὖ (eu, well) and σέβομαι (sébomai, revere).
“reverence” in this verse is eusébeia. Alongside capacity, Peter refuses to credit his own reverent devotion with making the man walk. The verse therefore releases both personal ability and religious standing from the role of source.
ALSO GROWS
sébomai: Revere, show reverence.
σέβομαι
This verb carries the reverence present within the word translated “holiness.”
eusébēs: Devout, reverent.
εὐσεβής
This related word describes a person marked by devotion, the kind of standing Peter says did not cause the healing.
περιπατεῖν
peripateîn
GROWS FROM
πατέω
patéō
Tread, step; περιπατέω (peripatéō) combines it with περί (perí, around) to mean walk or go about.
“to walk” in this verse is peripateîn. The Greek names bodily walking: the man is able to go about on his feet. The same verb appears in Peter’s words to him, tying the spoken command to the movement that follows.
ALSO GROWS
peripatéō: Walk, go about.
περιπατέω
This is the verb used both for Peter’s command and for the man’s restored movement.
katapatéō: Tread down, trample.
καταπατέω
This related compound preserves the root’s concrete image of feet making contact with the ground.
THE PATTERN
When a remarkable work draws attention to human agents, the text redirects its source beyond them.
Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but clothe your nature in weight, for your faithful love and for the sake of your truth.And saying, Men, why are you doing these things? We too are humankind, of like suffering with you, and bringing you the good news that you should turn from these empty things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.But we hold this treasure in clay vessels, so that the overflow of strength may be of God and not from us.THE THREAD
Then Peter said, Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you. In the nature of Jesus the Anointed One of Nazareth, rise up and walk.Both verses use περιπατέω (peripatéō, “walk”) for the man’s bodily movement. Acts 3:6 places that movement in the name, ὄνομα (ónoma, “name as nature”), of Jesus Christ, while verse 12 makes clear Peter does not claim its source for himself.
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