What Does Acts 5:15 Mean?
And so they carried the sick out into the wide streets and placed them on couches and mats, so that even the shadow of Peter, as he came, might cast its shade upon some of them.
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
Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.THE KEY
The Greek verb for “overshadow” carries the very word for “shadow,” making the shadow itself the reach of a presence.
THE MEANING
The sick are brought into the street and placed along Peter’s path, where even the shadow of his passing may reach them. The verse holds their hope in that possibility: a presence can extend beyond direct touch.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This unsettles the assumption that healing must come through direct contact: the verse places hope in the reach of a passing shadow.
THE ROOT
σκιά
skiá
GROWS FROM
σκια-
skia-
shadow, shade; the covering cast by a presence
“cast its shade upon” in this verse is skiá. The Greek noun σκιά names the shadow, while the verb ἐπισκιάζω is formed from that same word with the sense of overshadowing. The verse ties the hoped-for contact to the shadow itself: Peter’s passing reach may cover the sick.
ALSO GROWS
skiá: shadow, shade
σκιά
This is the noun for the shadow that passes over the sick.
episkiázō: overshadow, cover with a shadow
ἐπισκιάζω
This is the verb used for what Peter’s shadow might do, carrying the noun’s root into the action.
THE PATTERN
A shadow marks how a presence reaches and covers beyond direct contact.
He who settles in the hiding place of the Most High lodges in the shadow of the Almighty.And the messenger answered and said to her, The Set-Apart Breath will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also that set-apart thing born of you will be called the Son of God.While he was still speaking, look, a shining cloud cast its shade over them, and look, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I delight; hear him.THE THREAD
And the messenger answered and said to her, The Set-Apart Breath will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also that set-apart thing born of you will be called the Son of God.Luke uses the same Greek verb, ἐπισκιάζω (episkiázō, “overshadow”), that appears in Acts. In both verses, presence reaches over another through the language of shadow.
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