What Does Acts 3:26 Mean?
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.
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
Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.THE KEY
The verse locates the blessing itself in the turning away from each person’s own iniquities.
THE MEANING
God’s blessing reaches you as a movement away from the wrongdoing that is yours. The verse holds blessing and turning together: the turn is part of how the blessing meets you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that blessing can leave a person’s wrongdoing untouched; here, the blessing includes turning each person away from it.
THE ROOT
ἀποστρέφειν
apostrephein
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
στρέφω (strephō): to turn or turn around.
The Greek phrase makes turning part of the blessing’s action: ἀποστρέφειν (apostrephein, turning away) carries the στρέφω (strephō, turn) stem. English can make “bless” sound like a benefit handed over, while this sentence locates that good within a change of direction.
ALSO GROWS
epistrephō: turn back, return
ἐπιστρέφω
It shares the στρεφ stem and shows how this root can express a return or change of direction.
peristrephō: turn around, revolve
περιστρέφω
It shares the στρεφ stem and makes the root’s sense of turning around visible.
εὐλογοῦντα
eulogounta
GROWS FROM
λογ-
λογ- (log-, word or speech) is the speech element in εὐλογέω (eulogeō, bless), a word formed with εὖ (eu, well).
“bless” in this verse is eulogounta. The Greek word for blessing carries the texture of speaking good. The verse places that good beside a concrete turning away, giving blessing both speech and movement.
ALSO GROWS
logos: word, speech, account
λόγος
It shares the λογ stem and makes the speech element within the word for blessing visible.
eulogia: blessing, praise
εὐλογία
It shares the εὐλογ family and names the blessing that this verse connects with turning.
THE PATTERN
God’s blessing takes form as deliverance from the wrongdoing that would ruin a person.
Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each according to his ways, says the Lord LORD. Turn, and turn yourselves from all your rebellions; so crookedness shall not be your stumbling block.As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.THE THREAD
Turn around, then, and turn back, so that your shortcomings may be wiped away, and the times of breathing again may come from the face of the LORD.Acts 3:19 uses ἐπιστρέψατε (epistrepsate, turn back), from the same στρέφω (strephō, turn) family as ἀποστρέφειν (apostrephein, turn away) here. In both verses, turning is joined to sins being removed, opening the blessing as a reorientation that brings release.
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