What Does Acts 3:20 Mean?
And he will send the Anointed One, Jesus, who was appointed beforehand for you.
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 he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:THE KEY
The verse joins proclamation and arrival: the Jesus Christ made known to you is the one God sends to you.
THE MEANING
God’s sending moves toward you: the one you hear proclaimed is the one God sends. Jesus carries the name of deliverance, and Christ names the anointed one; the verse holds identity and arrival together in your present.
THE ROOT
ἀποστείλῃ
aposteilē
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω
apostellō
to send away, dispatch
The Greek form ἀποστείλῃ (aposteilē, “send”) comes from ἀποστέλλω (apostellō, “to send, dispatch”). The sentence’s movement is an arrival: what is proclaimed to you is also sent to you.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: messenger; one sent
ἀπόστολος
This related noun describes a person through the act of being sent, showing how sending can define identity.
apostolē: sending; commission
ἀποστολή
This related noun names the act or commission of sending, keeping the movement in view alongside the message.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yēšūaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-š-ʿ
to deliver, bringing someone out from constriction into space
The name appears in this Greek verse as Ἰησοῦν (Iēsoun, “Jesus”), representing Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšūaʿ, “Jesus”), from יָשַׁע (yāšaʿ, “to deliver”). The name compresses deliverance into identity, so the one God sends is deliverance arriving.
ALSO GROWS
yāšaʿ: to deliver; rescue
יָשַׁע
This verb supplies the name’s core consonants and the movement of bringing someone out.
yēšaʿ: deliverance; rescue
יֵשַׁע
This noun shares the same three root consonants and names the outcome the verb describes.
Χριστόν
Christon
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
to anoint
Χριστόν (Christon, “the anointed one”) comes from χρίω (chriō, “to anoint”). It is a title that names the nature and role carried by the one God sends.
ALSO GROWS
christos: anointed one
χριστός
This title comes from the same root and gives the anointed one’s designation.
chrisma: anointing; anointing oil
χρῖσμα
This noun shares the root and names the act or sign of anointing behind the title.
THE PATTERN
What God sends enters the world with a purpose that reaches the people it is sent toward.
Now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be delivered through him.THE THREAD
To you first, God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning each of you away from your wicked labors.Acts 3:26 uses the same Greek verb ἀποστέλλω (apostellō, “to send”) as Acts 3:20. It makes the sending’s purpose visible: blessing comes as a turning away from wrongdoing.
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