What Does Acts 8:6 Mean?
And the crowds with one passion held fast to what Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the signs which he did.
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 the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.THE KEY
“With one accord” carries the sense “with one passion”: shared attention gathers around what the people hear and see.
THE MEANING
Your attention gathers when what you hear meets what you see. Here, the people attend together to Philip’s words and the signs, receiving the message as something spoken and witnessed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that agreement is only a shared opinion: here, one passion takes shape as shared attention to spoken words and visible signs.
THE ROOT
ὁμοθυμαδόν
homothymadon
GROWS FROM
θυμ- (thym-), from θυμός (thymos)
Heat, ardor, passion; with ὁμο- (homo-, same), ὁμοθυμαδόν means with one passion, in one accord.
“with one passion” in this verse is homothymadon. “One accord” carries shared ardor as well as agreement. The people’s common attention is animated: what they hear and see gathers them around one compelling witness.
ALSO GROWS
thymos: Heat, ardor, or passion; also anger.
θυμός
This is the passion at the heart of the compound: their attention is shared and energized.
homothymos: Sharing one passion; of one mind.
ὁμόθυμος
This related form joins shared passion with shared orientation, echoing the crowd’s united response.
προσέχω
prosechō
GROWS FROM
ἔχω
echō
To hold or have; προσ- (pros-, toward) gives προσέχω the sense of holding attention toward something, attending to it.
“held fast” in this verse is prosechō. To give heed is pictured as holding toward what is spoken. The people are not merely exposed to a speech: their attention is directed to the words as the signs come into view.
ALSO GROWS
echō: Hold, have, or keep.
ἔχω
This base verb gives “gave heed” its sense of holding attention toward what is being said.
katechō: Hold fast or retain.
κατέχω
The shared root’s sense of holding clarifies how attention can stay fixed on what the people hear and see.
THE PATTERN
A message is received through joined witness: words are heard and signs are seen.
And Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses, and did the signs before the eyes of the people.Therefore they lingered a long time, speaking openly in the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his favor and gave signs and wonders to come about through their hands.But if I do them, even if you do not trust me, lean your weight on the works, so that you may come to perceive, and keep on perceiving, that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.THE THREAD
And they, holding fast day by day with one passion in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, took their food with gladness and singleness of heart.Acts 2:46 uses the same Greek word translated “with one accord.” Here that shared passion also takes shape in a common daily practice, extending the unity of attention into the way people share life.
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