What Does Acts 5:29 Mean?
Then Peter and the other sent ones answered and said, We must obey God rather than humankind.
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
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.THE KEY
Peter’s Greek for “obey” joins persuasion with rule, exposing the conflict as a question of which authority governs his response.
THE MEANING
When human demands collide with God’s claim, allegiance to God takes precedence. The verse presents this as a present necessity, and that priority can require refusing a human command.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Human authority has the final word, even when its command conflicts with obedience to God.
THE ROOT
πειθαρχεῖν
peitharchein
GROWS FROM
πειθ- (peith-), the persuasion stem in πειθαρχέω
πειθ- (peith-, persuade or convince) joins here with ἀρχή (archē, rule or authority), giving the verb the sense of obeying a ruling authority.
The word translated “obey” is πειθαρχέω (peitharcheō), a compound that brings persuasion and rule into the same word. Its form makes the verse’s conflict about which authority governs the response, not just about following a command.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: persuade, convince
πείθω
This base verb reveals the persuasion carried within the word for obedience.
peithomai: be persuaded; trust; obey
πείθομαι
This form describes the response of someone who is persuaded, showing how the same word family links conviction with obedience.
THE PATTERN
When human commands collide with God’s claim, divine authority sets the boundary of obedience.
But the midwives stood in awe of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but kept the boys alive.But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor bow down to the golden image which you have set up.But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is aligned before the face of God to hear and respond to you rather than to God, judge it."THE THREAD
And we are his witnesses to these words, and so is the Set-Apart Breath, whom God has given to those who obey him.The same Greek verb for “obey” appears here in the phrase “that obey him.” Its repetition connects the apostles’ refusal to yield to human command with their witness to what they have seen.
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