What Does Acts 6:13 Mean?
And they stood up false witnesses, who said, This man does not stop speaking words against this set-apart place and the instruction.
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 set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:THE KEY
The accusation takes testimony’s shape while the text exposes that shape as a lie.
THE MEANING
A claim is presented as testimony while its witnesses are named false. What is set apart and what instructs become the stated grounds for accusing this man. The verse exposes the gap between the form of testimony and its truth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A claim does not become trustworthy simply because it is delivered as testimony.
THE ROOT
μάρτυρας
martyras
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
to bear witness or give testimony
“witnesses” in this verse is martyras. The Greek word belongs to a family that includes both the witness and the act of testifying. Here the testimony is formally presented, but the accompanying word “false” separates that form from truth.
ALSO GROWS
martyria: testimony, witness
μαρτυρία
It names the testimony being offered and makes clear that testimony is a claim to be examined.
martyreō: to testify, bear witness
μαρτυρέω
It shows the action behind the witness: giving testimony does not by itself make that testimony true.
ψευδεῖς
pseudeis
GROWS FROM
ψευδ-
falsehood or lying
This word identifies the witnesses’ testimony as false at its source. The accusation may take the shape of evidence, but its description already tells the reader that the substance is untrue.
ALSO GROWS
pseudomai: to lie
ψεύδομαι
It connects false testimony with the act of speaking what is untrue.
pseudos: a lie, falsehood
ψεῦδος
It names the falsehood that can hide inside testimony’s outward form.
ἁγίου
hagiou
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
set apart
“set-apart place” in this verse is hagiou. The place is described as set apart, carrying the sense of something marked out from ordinary use. The charge invokes that boundary, along with instruction, as its grounds for accusation.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: to set apart, consecrate
ἁγιάζω
It makes the setting-apart sense active: the place is treated as something marked out.
hagiasmos: setting apart, consecration
ἁγιασμός
It shows the same word family describing a state or process of being set apart.
THE PATTERN
A charge can wear the form of testimony while remaining false.
You shall not answer against your neighbor as a witness of falsehood.A false witness does not come away clear, and the one who breathes out lies does not slip free.For many bore false testimony against him, but their testimonies did not match.THE THREAD
For many bore false testimony against him, but their testimonies did not match.The Greek word for “witness” belongs to the same μαρτυρ- family in both verses. In each, testimony is formally offered while the text exposes what is false about it.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us