What Does Acts 5:32 Mean?
And we are his witnesses to these words, and so is the Set-Apart Breath, whom God has given to those who obey him.
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 we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.THE KEY
The verse describes obedience as hearing under God, and his Set-Apart Breath as a witness alongside human testimony.
THE MEANING
The testimony reaches you through human witnesses, while God’s Set-Apart Breath also bears witness. God gives this Breath to those who hear and respond to him, holding responsive listening and divine testimony together now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that testimony about God rests on human speech alone: God’s Set-Apart Breath also witnesses. It also presents obedience as attentive hearing, not outward compliance alone.
THE ROOT
ὑπακούουσιν
hypakouousin
GROWS FROM
ἀκούω (akouō), within ὑπακούω (hypakouō)
To hear or listen; the compound carries the sense of listening under, hence heeding or obeying.
The word translated “obey” holds hearing inside it: obedience is responsive listening. That makes the giving of God’s Breath inseparable here from hearing and heeding him.
ALSO GROWS
akouō: Hear, listen.
ἀκούω
This is the hearing at the heart of the word for obey.
hypakoē: Obedience, heeding.
ὑπακοή
This related noun keeps the link between obedience and listening.
μάρτυρες
martyres
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
Witnessing or testifying.
The Greek word family names both the witness and the act of testimony. The human witnesses are not merely labeled by a role; their speaking is part of the testimony the verse describes.
ALSO GROWS
martys: Witness.
μάρτυς
This is the singular form of the word used for the human witnesses here.
martyria: Testimony, witness.
μαρτυρία
The related noun names the testimony carried by the witnesses.
martyreō: Bear witness, testify.
μαρτυρέω
This verb shows the word family as an act of speaking to what is true.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ- (pneu-), from πνέω (pneō)
Blow, breathe; breath or wind.
The Greek word translated “Ghost” also means breath and wind. Here God’s gift is the Set-Apart Breath, bearing witness alongside the human voices.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: Blow, breathe.
πνέω
This verb shares the word family and makes the breath sense plain.
pnoē: Breath, blast of wind.
πνοή
This related noun shows the same breath-and-wind range in another form.
THE PATTERN
God’s witness joins human testimony and is borne by the Set-Apart Breath.
And he said to them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed one is witness this day, that you have found nothing in my hand. And they said, He is witness.But when the One who comes alongside arrives, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Breath of truth, which goes out from the Father, he will bear witness of me.The breath itself testifies together with our breath, that we are children of God.THE THREAD
My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.Acts uses ὑπακούω (hypakouō), “obey,” built on ἀκούω (akouō), “hear”; John 10:27 uses that same hearing word directly. Together they show hearing as responsive attention, joined with following.
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