What Does Acts 8:20 Mean?
But Peter said to him, Your silver perish with you, because you have thought the gift of God may be bought with silver.
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
But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.THE KEY
The attempted purchase binds the would-be owner and his money to one ruin: the gift of God cannot be made into property.
THE MEANING
The verse names a present danger: when God’s gift is treated as something to acquire and possess, the grasping entangles the person with the ruin it seeks to avoid. The gift remains something received; payment cannot convert it into property. The warning joins the money’s ruin to the person’s, making the judgment severe and indivisible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
I can secure God’s gift if I can pay enough for it.
THE ROOT
δωρεὰν
dōreán lemma
GROWS FROM
δωρ-/δωρε- (dōr-/dōre-), the Greek gift-word family
Gift; something given.
Here δωρεὰν (dōreán) is the noun δωρεά (dōreá), meaning “gift.” Its related form δωρεάν (dōreán) means “freely,” bringing gift and free giving close together in the Greek word family as the verse contrasts receiving with buying.
ALSO GROWS
dōron: Gift, present.
δῶρον
This related noun keeps the verse’s focus on what is given, rather than on what can be owned.
dōreán: Freely, without payment.
δωρεάν
This related form appears in Matthew 10:8, where receiving and giving are both described as free.
κτᾶσθαι
ktâsthai from
GROWS FROM
κτη-/κτα- (ktē-/ktā-), the κτάομαι word family
Acquire, gain, possess.
“bought” in this verse is ktâsthai from. The verb κτᾶσθαι (ktâsthai) means “to acquire” or “to possess”; buying is the means in view. Its sense reaches beyond payment to the claim of ownership: the gift is being treated as something to get and hold.
ALSO GROWS
ktēma: Property, possession.
κτῆμα
This related noun makes visible the ownership implied by trying to acquire the gift.
ktēsis: Acquisition, possession.
κτῆσις
The shared word family points to the shift from receiving a gift to claiming it as one’s own.
ἀπώλειαν
apṓleian from
GROWS FROM
ἀπωλ- (apōl-), from ἀπόλλυμι (apóllymi)
Perish, destroy, lose; ruin or destruction.
The noun ἀπώλειαν (apṓleian) means “destruction” or “ruin”; it belongs to the word family of ἀπόλλυμι (apóllymi), “perish, destroy, lose.” The sentence gives the money and its owner one shared destination, so the warning reaches beyond a bad purchase to ruin joined to the one who grasps.
ALSO GROWS
apóllymi: Perish, destroy, lose.
ἀπόλλυμι
This related verb carries the same movement toward perishing or loss that the warning names.
apolōlós: Lost, having perished.
ἀπολωλός
This related form names one who is lost, echoing how the verse joins a person’s fate to the ruin of the attempted purchase.
THE PATTERN
When what is offered freely is treated as a possession to acquire, the transaction turns gift into ruin.
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.Heal the weak, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. As a gift you received, as a gift give.And the Breath and the bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who thirsts come. Let whoever wills take the waters of life as a gift.THE THREAD
Heal the weak, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. As a gift you received, as a gift give.Acts uses δωρεὰν (dōreán) as the noun “gift”; Matthew uses the related form δωρεάν (dōreán) twice as “freely.” The shared word family brings the measure of the gift into view: what is received freely is given freely.
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