What Does Acts 3:4 Mean?
And Peter stretched his gaze upon him, with John, and said, Look at us.
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 Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.THE KEY
The first movement toward healing is reciprocal attention: Peter fixes his gaze on the man, then asks him to look back.
THE MEANING
You are met in a moment of mutual attention: a gaze settles on you, and you are invited to return it. Peter (Πέτρος, Pétros, “stone”) and John (Ἰωάννης, Iōannēs; יוֹחָנָן, Yōḥānān, “YHWH has shown favor”) stand together; before a remedy appears, the man is addressed as someone worth seeing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Need does not make you invisible until it is fixed.
THE ROOT
ἔμβλεψον
emblepson
GROWS FROM
βλεπ-
blep-
See, look, perceive.
“Look on” in this verse is emblepson. The imperative asks for a deliberate look toward someone. It follows Peter’s own fixed gaze, so seeing moves from focused regard to mutual encounter; this word family can also name sight regained.
ALSO GROWS
anablepō: Look up; regain sight.
ἀναβλέπω
The same seeing-root can describe sight returning, linking directed attention with restored vision.
apoblepō: Look toward; fix attention on.
ἀποβλέπω
This branch makes explicit the directed regard carried by Peter’s invitation.
THE PATTERN
A directed gaze makes attention personal before it becomes speech, judgment, or help.
And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You are El Roi, the God who sees me. For she said, Have I also here looked after the one who sees me?Jesus looked at him and loved him, and said to him, One thing is lacking to you. Go, sell what you have, and give to the emptied, and you will have treasure in heaven. Come, take up the cross, and follow me.And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crows, you shall refuse me thrice.THE THREAD
And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crows, you shall refuse me thrice.The same Greek verb, ἐμβλέπω (emblepō, “look upon”), describes Jesus turning his gaze toward Peter. Here Peter directs that focused regard toward the man at the gate and asks him to return it; the shared root holds seeing as personal encounter.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us