What Does Acts 9:13 Mean?

Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your set-apart ones at Jerusalem.

Acts 9:13 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:

THE KEY

The people Saul harms belong to the Lord so fully that Jesus soon speaks of their persecution as his own.

THE MEANING

Ananias names the danger plainly: Saul has done great harm to the Lord’s set-apart people. Calling them “thy saints” keeps their belonging visible even as he speaks of what has been done to them.

THE ROOT

ἁγίοις

hagiois

GROWS FROM

ἁγ-

hag-

set apart; holy

“set-apart ones” in this verse is hagiois. The word identifies these people by their belonging to the Lord, even while they are being harmed. English “saints” can sound like a special class; the Greek points to people set apart as his own.

ALSO GROWS

hagiazō: to set apart; to sanctify

ἁγιάζω

This verb makes the root’s action visible: being set apart is a belonging, not a measure of safety from harm.

hagiasmos: setting apart; holiness

ἁγιασμός

This noun names the state associated with the saints Ananias says Saul has harmed.

κακά

kaka

GROWS FROM

κακ-

kak-

bad; harmful

The word points to harmful acts, not merely an abstract idea of evil. Its force is sharpened by what follows: the harm is done to people who belong to the Lord.

ALSO GROWS

kakia: badness; malice

κακία

This branch names the hostile quality that can underlie harmful acts.

kakopoieō: to do harm; to do evil

κακοποιέω

This verb makes the connection between the root and the concrete harm Ananias reports.

THE PATTERN

Harm directed at God’s people reaches God himself.

For thus says the LORD of hosts. After the weight, he has sent me to the nations that plundered you, for whoever touches you touches the pupil of his eye.

Zechariah 2:8 · SDVThe LORD describes an attack on his people as touching the apple of his own eye.

And he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you pursue me?

Acts 9:4 · SDVJesus names Saul’s persecution of his people as persecution directed at himself.

If one limb aches, all the limbs ache with it, and if one is clothed in weight, all of them rejoice with it.

1 Corinthians 12:26 · SDVThe body shares the suffering of any one of its members.

THE THREAD

And he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you pursue me?

Acts 9:4 · SDV

Ananias names the people Saul has harmed as the Lord’s saints; Jesus’s question reveals that this belonging is more than a title. He receives their persecution as persecution of himself, which explains why Ananias’s report matters to the Lord.

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