What Does Acts 7:18 Mean?
Until another king stood up, who had not seen Joseph.
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
Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.THE KEY
The new king rises into power while the name that means “he adds” falls outside his knowing.
THE MEANING
A new authority rises, yet Joseph is outside its knowing. The rupture is a failure of recognition: the present can be shaped by a source it no longer sees. Joseph’s name carries the sound of increase, so not knowing him also places that increase outside the ruler’s view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A new power always understands and honors what made its rise possible.
THE ROOT
ᾔδει
ēdei from oida
GROWS FROM
ϝειδ-
*weid-
To see; from seeing, to know or recognize
“had not seen” in this verse is ēdei from oida. The Greek word for knowing belongs to a word family tied to seeing. The verse’s rupture is a failure of recognition, not just a lack of information.
ALSO GROWS
eidon: saw
εἶδον
This related form makes the link between seeing and knowing audible: what is not recognized can be treated as absent.
eidos: form, visible appearance
εἶδος
This related word for what comes into view reinforces the verse’s image of Joseph falling outside the ruler’s perception.
יוסף
Yosef
GROWS FROM
יסף
yasaph
To add, increase
Joseph’s Hebrew name carries the sense “he adds” or “may he add.” The verse’s failure to know Joseph can also be heard as a failure to recognize the increase associated with him.
ALSO GROWS
hosif: to add, increase
הוֹסִיף
This verb gives the root’s action: Joseph’s name holds the sense of adding within it.
tosefet: addition, extra
תּוֹסֶפֶת
This noun preserves the root’s sense of increase, clarifying the nature carried in Joseph’s name.
ἀνέστη
anestē
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand, set in place
“stood up” in this verse is anestē. The verb pictures the king standing up into rule. Authority takes its position, while knowing Joseph is absent.
ALSO GROWS
histēmi: to stand, set
ἵστημι
This is the verb at the heart of “arose”: the ruler stands into a new position.
anastasis: rising, standing up
ἀνάστασις
Built from the same stand-up word family, it keeps the concrete image of rising present in the king’s ascent.
THE PATTERN
What is present and sustaining can remain unrecognized by those living within its effects.
Now a new king arose over Egypt, one who did not know Joseph.And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers, and there rose another generation after them, who did not know the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, and the world did not perceive him.THE THREAD
And she called his name Joseph, may he add, and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.Joseph’s Hebrew name, Yosef, comes from yasaph, “to add.” Genesis 30:24 makes that naming audible, so the king’s failure to know Joseph carries an added loss: he does not recognize the one whose name bears increase.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us