What Does Acts 8:25 Mean?
And they, when they had borne witness and spoken the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and brought the good news to many villages of the Samaritans.
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 they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.THE KEY
Returning to the familiar does not stop the witness: the good news keeps moving into Samaritan villages.
THE MEANING
The testimony you carry about the Lord becomes spoken word and travels through familiar places and beyond them. In you, a return to familiar ground remains part of a movement that carries good news across boundaries.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that returning to what is familiar means the message has stopped is undone here: the return to Jerusalem accompanies good news reaching Samaritan villages.
THE ROOT
εὐαγγελίζομαι
euangelizomai
GROWS FROM
εὐαγγελ-
euangel-
Good-news announcement: the word family names both the message and the act of announcing it.
“brought the good news” in this verse is euangelizomai. The Greek verb translated “preached the gospel” belongs to the same word family as “good news.” The message and its movement outward are held together in one family of words.
ALSO GROWS
euangelion: Good news; the message announced.
εὐαγγέλιον
The message proclaimed in the villages is named by the same word family.
euangelistēs: An announcer of good news; an evangelist.
εὐαγγελιστής
This branch names the person who carries the announcement.
διαμαρτύρομαι
diamartyromai
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
Witness and testimony: attesting to what is seen or known.
“borne witness” in this verse is diamartyromai. The Greek word family joins the act of testifying with the witness who bears testimony. Beside the good-news verb, it shows proclamation growing from witness.
ALSO GROWS
martyria: Testimony; a witness account.
μαρτυρία
It names the testimony that precedes the announcement in this verse.
martys: A witness; one who bears testimony.
μάρτυς
It names the witness whose testimony can become public proclamation.
THE PATTERN
Witness becomes announcement, and the announcement crosses from familiar places into wider communities.
But you will take hold of power when the Set-Apart Breath comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the farthest edge of the ground.How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who makes wholeness heard, who brings good news of good, who makes deliverance heard, who says to Zion, Your God governs.Recount his weight among the nations; his wonders among all peoples.THE THREAD
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who makes wholeness heard, who brings good news of good, who makes deliverance heard, who says to Zion, Your God governs.The Greek scriptures use the same good-news word family here as Acts uses for “preached the gospel.” The Samaritan-village announcement is part of that same movement: good news travels across distance and reaches its hearers.
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