What Does Acts 7:23 Mean?
As forty years were filled for him, it rose up in his heart to look in on his brothers, the children of Israel.
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 when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.THE KEY
The verse’s “visit” is attentive seeing: the heart’s concern comes close enough to look upon its kin.
THE MEANING
As a span of time fills out, an inward movement rises in you and turns toward your kin. The heart’s concern takes the concrete shape of coming to see those it recognizes as family.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that a thought in the heart is only private: here, what rises within becomes a visit to another.
THE ROOT
ἐπισκέψασθαι
episképsasthai
GROWS FROM
σκεπ-/σκοπ- (skep-/skop-)
Look toward, observe, attend to.
“look in on” in this verse is episképsasthai. The verb translated “visit” carries the sense of looking upon someone with attention. The visit is more than arriving at a place: it is drawing near to see and attend to the people there.
ALSO GROWS
epískopos: Overseer; one who watches over.
ἐπίσκοπος
The same word-family links attentive looking with taking oversight of others.
episkopē: Oversight; visitation.
ἐπισκοπή
This branch shows visitation as an act of attention directed toward someone.
ἐπληροῦτο
eplērounto
GROWS FROM
πληρ-
plēr-
Fill, complete.
“forty years were filled” in this verse is eplērounto. The Greek describes the time being fulfilled for him: the years have reached their fullness. At that point, what rises in his heart is directed toward his brethren.
ALSO GROWS
plērēs: Full, complete.
πλήρης
This adjective shares the idea of reaching fullness expressed by the time in the verse.
plērōma: Fullness; that which fills.
πλήρωμα
This noun echoes the verse’s image of a span of time coming to its full measure.
THE PATTERN
Visitation becomes attention in action: it comes near to see, tend, or bring someone out.
And Joseph said to his brothers, "I die. God will surely visit you, and bring you up from this land to the land he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."Let the LORD God of Israel be spoken well of, for he has looked upon and redeemed his people,Clean and unstained service before God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widowed in their being pressed, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
Clean and unstained service before God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widowed in their being pressed, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.James uses the same verb translated “visit” here, with its sense of attending to someone. In Acts, the heart turns toward the brethren; in James, that attentive movement is present with people in affliction.
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