What Does Acts 7:37 Mean?
This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. To him you shall give ear.
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
This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.THE KEY
The promised prophet rises from among the people, so God’s voice arrives through shared human kinship and calls for a hearing response.
THE MEANING
God’s voice reaches you through one raised from among your own people; the messenger stands within shared human kinship. The verse places hearing at the center of the encounter: the words come through a human voice, and your attention is part of the response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s voice must come from somewhere wholly separate from ordinary human life.
THE ROOT
ἀναστήσει
anastēsei
GROWS FROM
ἀνίστημι
anistēmi
Stand up, rise, or raise up.
“raise up” in this verse is anastēsei. The verb carries the image of someone made to stand among the people. Its word family also names rising and resurrection, so the promise presents the prophet as one who comes upright into view.
ALSO GROWS
anastasis: Resurrection, rising
ἀνάστασις
The related noun makes the shared image of rising visible in the promise of a prophet raised up.
anistēmi: Stand up, arise
ἀνίστημι
This is the verb’s dictionary form: the promised raising is also a standing up.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משׁה
māšāh
Draw out.
Exodus 2:10 links Moses’ name to being drawn out of the water. Here the one named as drawn out announces another figure raised from among the people, bringing the name’s image of emergence alongside the prophecy.
ALSO GROWS
māšāh: Draw out
מָשָׁה
This is the Hebrew verb connected with Moses’ name in the account of his being drawn from the water.
mĕšîtihû: I drew him out
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in Exodus 2:10 and makes the name’s draw-out meaning explicit.
ἀκούσεσθε
akousesthe
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
Hear, listen, receive what is heard.
“To him you shall give ear” in this verse is akousesthe. The phrase calls for more than sound reaching the ear: the hearer attends to the prophet’s words. The verb’s family holds both hearing and what is heard, keeping the listener connected to the message.
ALSO GROWS
akouō: Hear, listen
ἀκούω
This is the verb in its dictionary form and the source of the command to hear the prophet.
akoē: Hearing, report
ἀκοή
The related noun links the act of hearing with the message received.
THE PATTERN
God’s voice is made hearable through a messenger raised among the people, and hearing is the response the message calls for.
The LORD your God raises up for you a prophet from your midst, from your brothers, like me. To him you hear and respond.For Moses truly said to the fathers, The LORD your God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall hear and respond to him in all things, whatever he says to you.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.Both verses use forms of ἀκούω (akouō), “to hear.” John makes explicit what Acts leaves in the word itself: hearing the voice is connected with a response.
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