What Does Acts 7:60 Mean?
And he set his knees down, and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not make this shortcoming stand against them. And saying this, he fell asleep.
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 he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.THE KEY
The Greek turns “charge” into a question of what is made to stand: the wrong is named, but its accusation is asked not to stand over the ones who did it.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two things together now: the harm is named, and the plea is that its makers not remain under a fixed charge for it. The speaker places that plea before the Lord as the violent scene closes. Death is named as sleep, giving the ending the language of rest without softening what has happened.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A real wrong must be denied before it can be released. Here the missing is plainly named even as the plea asks that it not remain a charge.
THE ROOT
στήσῃς
stēsēs
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
to stand; to set or establish something so that it stands
“do not make this shortcoming stand against them” in this verse is stēsēs. “Lay ... to their charge” translates a verb meaning to make something stand. The plea is not that the wrong go unnamed, but that it not be established as a standing charge against those who did it.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: to stand up, arise
ἀνίστημι
The related verb carries the sense of rising; this word family links standing with what is set upright or brought to its feet.
stasis: a standing, position, or state
στάσις
Its sense of a position that holds gives “charge” the force of something established against a person, not merely a label.
ἁμαρτία
hamartia
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
to miss, fail, or go astray
“shortcoming” in this verse is hamartia. The Greek word keeps the sense of a missing or failure within what English calls “sin.” The verse names that missing plainly, then asks that it not be made to stand as the enduring charge against its doers.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: to miss, err, or fail
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb preserves the action inside the noun: the missing is something done, not a person’s whole nature.
hamartōlos: one who misses or errs; a sinner
ἁμαρτωλός
The related word names a person through the same family of missing, showing how an act can become an identity when the charge is made to stand.
ἐκοιμήθη
ekoimēthē
GROWS FROM
κοιμάω
koimaō
to sleep; also used as a way of speaking about death
“fell asleep” in this verse is ekoimēthē. The verse closes by naming death through the language of sleep. That word does not make the violence disappear; it gives the final moment a second register of rest.
ALSO GROWS
koimēsis: sleep or slumber
κοίμησις
The related noun keeps the verse’s closing image in the language of sleep.
koimētērion: sleeping place; cemetery
κοιμητήριον
The word family behind “cemetery” preserves the same connection between sleep and the place of the dead.
THE PATTERN
A wrong can be named truthfully while its claim is released instead of fixed as the final charge over its doers.
And now, do not be pained, and do not let it burn in your eyes that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to keep alive.Then Jesus said, Father, release them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they parted his garments, and cast lots.And release our debts, as we also release our debtors.THE THREAD
Then Peter said to them, Turn, and be immersed, every one of you, in the nature of Jesus, the Anointed One, for the release of your shortcomings, and you will take hold of the gift of the Set-Apart Breath.The same Greek word ἁμαρτία (hamartia, “missing”) appears here as “sins”; Acts 2:38 pairs it with ἄφεσις (aphesis, “release”), rendered “remission.” One verse asks that the missing not stand as a charge, while the other names its release.
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