What Does Acts 4:6 Mean?
and Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all who were of the high priest's kin.
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 Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.THE KEY
The high priest’s authority appears as a kinship network gathered around one office.
THE MEANING
A circle of authority gathers around the high priest: named leaders and his kin stand together in Jerusalem. You encounter power here as a structure of office and lineage, while the city’s name carries the language of wholeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the assumption that authority rests in one title-holder alone; here it is reinforced by a circle of names and inherited kinship.
THE ROOT
συνήχθησαν
synēchthēsan
GROWS FROM
σύν + ἄγω (syn + agō)
Together + bring or lead: to bring people together.
“gathered together” in this verse is synēchthēsan. The Greek verb holds the motion of many being brought into one place. The same seed appears in συναγωγή (synagōgē), “assembly,” and προσᾰγωγή (prosagōgē), “approach” or “access,” showing how gathering draws people toward a shared center.
ALSO GROWS
synagōgē: assembly
συναγωγή
The assembly is the gathered group made visible as one body.
prosagōgē: approach, access
προσᾰγωγή
This branch keeps the sense of being brought toward a common point.
γένους
genous
GROWS FROM
γεν
gen-
Be born; come into being.
“kin” in this verse is genous. Kindred is γένος (genos), “lineage” or “stock,” from the seed of birth and origin. The high priest’s circle is marked by shared belonging: γενεά (genea), “generation” or “lineage,” and γένεσις (genesis), “birth” or “origin,” carry the same seed.
ALSO GROWS
genea: generation, lineage
γενεά
It makes the shared line of descent in “kindred” audible.
genesis: birth, origin
γένεσις
It points to the common origin that binds a lineage.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
Be whole, complete.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Yerushalayim) carries שׁלם (sh-l-m), the seed of wholeness; שָׁלוֹם (shalom) means “wholeness,” and שָׁלֵם (shalem) means “complete, intact.” Its twofold ending holds that language of wholeness around this gathering of office and kinship.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness
שָׁלוֹם
The city’s name carries this same seed of wholeness.
shalem: complete, intact
שָׁלֵם
This branch gives the root’s sense of wholeness as something undivided.
THE PATTERN
Assemblies form around a shared center, and their common purpose gives the gathering its character.
And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.Then the chief priests and the separated ones gathered together in council, and said, What are we doing? For this man does many signs.The kings of the earth stood side by side, and the rulers gathered together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.THE THREAD
The kings of the earth stood side by side, and the rulers gathered together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.Acts repeats the same Greek gathering verb, now describing rulers gathered against the Lord and his anointed one. The shared root makes the collective shape of authority in this verse audible across the passage.
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