What Does Acts 4:33 Mean?
And with great power the sent ones rendered their witness to the standing up of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was upon them all.
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 with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.THE KEY
The apostles’ powerful testimony makes resurrection public, while great favor rests across the whole community.
THE MEANING
The risen Jesus stands at the center of a testimony carried with great power. Great favor rests on the whole community, joining the force of the witness with favor shared among them all. The verse speaks now of resurrection as a reality people can attest to.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Favor belongs only to the most powerful voices; the verse says great favor is upon them all.
THE ROOT
ἀνάστασις
anastasis
GROWS FROM
στη- / στα- (from ἵστημι, histēmi)
Stand, or set upright.
The Greek word carries the image of standing up. Joined to the apostles’ witness, resurrection names a life that has risen and is publicly attested.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: Rise, stand up.
ἀνίστημι
It is the verb form for rising, making the physical movement inside “resurrection” clearer.
histēmi: Stand, set in place.
ἵστημι
This is the underlying verb family: resurrection is expressed through the language of standing.
μαρτύριον
martyrion
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
Bear witness; testify.
Greek places the witness, the act of bearing witness, and the testimony itself in one word family. The apostles give testimony to a risen life, not merely to an idea.
ALSO GROWS
martys: Witness.
μάρτυς
It names the person who attests to what has happened, as the apostles do here.
martyreō: Bear witness, testify.
μαρτυρέω
It names the act of giving testimony that appears in the verse’s phrase “gave witness.”
χάρις
charis
GROWS FROM
χαρ-
char-
Favor shown or received.
The verse says this favor rests upon them all. Its word family also includes favor freely given and gifts that arise from favor, so the shared life of the community carries more than the apostles’ public testimony.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: Show favor, grant freely.
χαρίζομαι
This related verb gives favor the shape of something extended to another.
charisma: A gift arising from favor.
χάρισμα
It shows how favor can take form as something given and shared.
THE PATTERN
Life that rises beyond death becomes a reality shared with others.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground shall awake, some to the life of the ages, and some to exposure and contempt for the ages.God raised up this Jesus, and we are all witnesses to this.But now the Anointed One has been awakened from the dead, and has become the first portion of those who have lain down to sleep.THE THREAD
God raised up this Jesus, and we are all witnesses to this.Acts 4:33 uses μαρτύριον (martyrion, testimony), while Acts 2:32 uses μάρτυρες (martyres, witnesses); both belong to the μαρτυρ- (martyr-, witness and testimony) word family. That shared root shows how the resurrection becomes public through those who attest that Jesus is raised.
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