What Does Acts 5:9 Mean?
Then Peter said to her, How is it that you have sounded together to test the breath of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.
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 said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.THE KEY
Their voices sound together to test the Lord’s breath, while the feet at the door make the consequence immediate and bodily.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader at a threshold: the people who have carried her husband out are already there, and now they will carry her out too. Her private agreement is named as a test of the Lord’s breath, while its consequence arrives at the door in literal feet. The hidden arrangement becomes visible in an immediate bodily outcome.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A coordinated lie can remain hidden from the Lord if its partners keep it consistent.
THE ROOT
συνεφωνήθη
synephōnēthē
GROWS FROM
φων-
phōn-
Sound or voice
“sounded together” in this verse is synephōnēthē. The verb is built on the language of sound: to agree is to “sound together.” The verse presents their pact as coordinated voices aimed at putting the Lord’s breath to the test, a link English’s smooth “agreed together” leaves under the surface.
ALSO GROWS
phōnē: Voice or sound
φωνή
This is the audible voice at the heart of the word for agreement.
symphōneō: To sound together, agree
συμφωνέω
This related form makes the shared, coordinated quality of their agreement explicit.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ-
pneu-
Breathe or blow
The Greek word holds breath and spirit in one term. Set beside their voices, the Lord’s pneuma brings the language of living breath into the scene, where English “Spirit” can hide that resonance.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To breathe or blow
πνέω
The verb keeps the physical action of breathing within the same word family.
pnoē: Breath or blowing
πνοή
This related noun shows the family’s direct connection to breath.
πειράσαι
peirasai
GROWS FROM
πειρα-
peira-
An attempt or test
The verb carries the sense of putting someone or something to the test, alongside the familiar shade of tempting. Here the agreement is a deliberate trial of the Lord’s breath, and the verse shows that the test cannot dictate the response.
ALSO GROWS
peirazō: To test or try
πειράζω
This is the verb’s lexical form and preserves the sense of putting something to a test.
peirasmos: A test, trial, or temptation
πειρασμός
This related noun shows how the same family names both a trial and the experience of being tested.
THE PATTERN
A human attempt to put the LORD to the test reveals the limits of trying to control the answer.
You shall not test the LORD your God, as you tested him at Massah, the testing place.And they tested God in their heart by asking food for their living soul.Let us not test the Anointed One, as some of them also tested, and perished by the serpents.THE THREAD
Let us not test the Anointed One, as some of them also tested, and perished by the serpents.Acts uses πειράζω (peirazō), “to test or try,” for the couple’s attempt; 1 Corinthians uses the same verb for testing Christ. The shared root reveals the same pattern: a test of the Lord’s presence does not control the answer.
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