What Does Acts 5:6 Mean?
And the younger men rose up, drew him together, and carried him out and buried 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 the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.THE KEY
Here, the Greek word family behind “resurrection” names a rise that leads to burial.
THE MEANING
The verse lets you see death as something the living encounter in a body: the young men rise, wrap the man, carry him out, and bury him. Their movement makes the loss concrete without softening it.
THE ROOT
ἀναστάντες
anastantes
GROWS FROM
ἀνίστημι (anistēmi), built from ἀνά (ana, up) + ἵστημι (histēmi, stand)
To stand or rise up; in context, ἀνίστημι means to get up, and the same word family can also describe rising from the dead.
“arose” in this verse is anastantes. The young men literally get up to act, while this word family also names rising from the dead. That echo sharpens the scene without turning their action into resurrection: their rise serves the body’s burial.
ALSO GROWS
anastasis: rising; resurrection
ἀνάστασις
This noun names resurrection from the same rise-and-stand word family, revealing the echo hidden by the ordinary English “arose.”
anestēsan: they rose up; they stood
ἀνέστησαν
In Acts 15:5 this form describes people rising to speak, showing that the same verb can describe ordinary action as well as resurrection language.
συνέστειλαν
syneisteilan
GROWS FROM
στέλλω (stellō, draw together, arrange, or send), joined with συν- (syn, together)
The compound συστέλλω carries the sense of drawing together or wrapping; στέλλω also has senses of arranging and sending.
“drew him together” in this verse is syneisteilan. English “wound him up” can sound mechanical, while συστέλλω means gathering or drawing together, here wrapping the body for burial. In 1 Corinthians 7:29 the same verb describes time as shortened or compressed, so wrapping and contraction share the language of drawing something in.
ALSO GROWS
synestalmenos: shortened; compressed
συνεσταλμένος
In 1 Corinthians 7:29 this form describes time as contracted; here the same verb’s draw-together sense is applied to the wrapped body.
apostellō: send out; dispatch
ἀποστέλλω
This compound keeps the sending sense carried by στέλλω, while συν- gives συστέλλω its sense of drawing together.
THE PATTERN
The living make death tangible through the body’s passage into wrapping and burial.
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, which is Hebron in the land of Canaan.Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth.At once she fell at his feet and breathed out her living soul. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, they buried her beside her husband.THE THREAD
Jesus said to her, I am the rising, and the life. Whoever leans their weight into me, even if they die, will live.Jesus names resurrection with ἀνάστασις (anastasis, rising), from the same word family as ἀνίστημι (anistēmi, arise) in Acts. That shared root holds the burial scene and the promise of life in one frame, while leaving the young men’s ordinary rising distinct from resurrection.
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