What Does Acts 5:38 Mean?
And now I say to you, Stand away from these men and release them. For if this counsel or this work is of humankind, it will come undone.
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 now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:THE KEY
The command to stand back rests on a hidden test: work from a human source will be loosened apart.
THE MEANING
The command speaks to you as a call to step back and leave the people alone; the question is where their counsel and work come from. If they arise from human beings, the verse says, they will be dismantled. Their staying power is disclosed by their source, not secured by someone else’s grip.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that you must personally crush a human work for it to fail; the verse says what originates in human beings carries its own undoing.
THE ROOT
καταλυθήσεται
katalythēsetai
GROWS FROM
λύω
luō
To loosen or release; by extension, to undo or dissolve.
“come undone” in this verse is katalythēsetai. The word translated “come to nought” carries the image of something being loosened apart. The verse pictures human-origin work as unable to hold its form, rather than as something that must be defeated by greater force.
ALSO GROWS
apolyō: Release, dismiss, or send away.
ἀπολύω
This branch shows the same loosening root in the act of releasing someone; the verse’s call to leave the people alone echoes that motion.
eklyō: Loosen, dissolve, or become faint.
ἐκλύω
The sense of loosening helps uncover the image beneath a work coming apart.
lysis: A loosening, release, or dissolution.
λύσις
This noun makes explicit the process implied by the work being brought to nothing.
ἀπόστητε
apostēte
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand, cause to stand, or set in place.
“Stand away” in this verse is apostēte. “Refrain” carries the image of standing away. Beside the work that will be loosened apart, the verse presents restraint as stepping back while the outcome reveals itself.
ALSO GROWS
histēmi: Stand or set in place.
ἵστημι
This is the core stand-image inside the command to withdraw.
aphistēmi: Stand away, withdraw, or depart.
ἀφίστημι
The command comes from this compound, making its spatial sense plain: take distance from these men.
stasis: A standing, position, or faction.
στάσις
This branch keeps the question of where people stand in view as the verse contrasts stepping back with work that may not stand.
THE PATTERN
A work’s source determines its endurance; human effort cannot make lasting what is not rooted in God.
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders toil in emptiness. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in emptiness.But he answered and said, Every planting that my heavenly Father did not plant will be rooted out.Each one's work will be made visible, for the day will show it, because it is uncovered in fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.THE THREAD
But if it is of God, you cannot undo them, lest perhaps you be found even fighting against God.The next verse uses the same Greek verb, καταλύω (katalyō), meaning “dismantle”: human-origin work will be dismantled, but work from God cannot be. The repeated verb completes the test from the other side: the source determines what can be undone.
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