What Does Acts 5:2 Mean?
And he drew aside from the price, his wife also knowing it, and brought a certain part and placed it at the feet of the sent ones.
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 kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.THE KEY
The Greek verb for “kept back” carries the sense of setting something apart for oneself, so the portion placed at the apostles’ feet never stands alone.
THE MEANING
Ananias keeps part of the price while his wife shares the knowledge, then places another part at the apostles’ feet. The verse holds the public gesture and the private remainder together: what appears in the open does not make the concealed portion disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a visible offering tells the whole story dissolves here: the withheld portion remains part of the same act.
THE ROOT
ἐνοσφίσατο
enosphisato
GROWS FROM
νόσφι
nosphi
Apart or separately; in the verb, keeping something apart for oneself.
“drew aside” in this verse is enosphisato. The verb presents the withheld part as something set apart for oneself, not as a detail outside the act of giving. English can make the keeping and the offering sound like separate moments; this root holds them together.
ALSO GROWS
nosphi: Apart, separately, or secretly.
νόσφι
This is the seed behind the verb: the money is kept apart from what is brought.
nosphizomai: To keep back for oneself or purloin.
νοσφίζομαι
The verb names the private retaining as part of the action described in the verse.
συνειδυίης
syneidyies
GROWS FROM
εἴδω
eidō
To see or perceive, and by extension to know.
The Greek behind “privy” is built around knowing together. Her knowledge is placed alongside his act, making the concealed portion something shared between them.
ALSO GROWS
sunoida: To know with another or share awareness.
σύνοιδα
This verb underlies the participle translated “privy” and makes their shared knowledge explicit.
syneidēsis: Conscience or inward awareness.
συνείδησις
This related word carries the sense of knowing-with into inward awareness.
τιμῆς
timēs
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
tim-
Value or worth, including monetary price and honor.
The word translated “price” belongs to a word family that can also speak of honor. The sum is not only an amount of money; it is something valued, and the verse places its division in view.
ALSO GROWS
timē: Price, value, or honor.
τιμή
The verse’s price is the same word that can name what is esteemed.
timaō: To honor or value.
τιμάω
This related verb shows how the word family moves from a thing’s price to the act of assigning it worth.
THE PATTERN
A concealed remainder remains part of the whole truth of an outward offering.
For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.Will not God search this out? For he perceives the hidden places of the heart.THE THREAD
Not pocketing, but showing all good trust, that they may dress the teaching of God our Deliverer in all things.Both verses use νοσφίζομαι (nosphizomai), meaning “to keep back for oneself” or “purloin.” The shared word makes the withheld portion in Acts part of the act itself, while Titus sets that same action alongside demonstrated trustworthiness.
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