What Does Acts 9:40 Mean?
But Peter cast them all outside, and set his knees down, and prayed. And turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, stand up. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
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 put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.THE KEY
In Greek, the command “arise” shares its root with “resurrection”: Tabitha’s return is named as standing up.
THE MEANING
Here, prayer leads Peter to turn toward Tabitha’s body and speak to her directly. She opens her eyes and sits up; the word he speaks carries the sense of rising to stand, the same image that names resurrection elsewhere in Greek.
THE ROOT
ἀνάστηθι
anastēthi
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand or set in place.
“stand up” in this verse is anastēthi. The command combines “up” with “stand,” naming Tabitha’s movement as standing up. The same root forms the Greek word for resurrection, so English’s separate words for “arise” and “resurrection” conceal a shared image of rising to one’s feet.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: To rise or stand up.
ἀνίστημι
This verb family gives the command to Tabitha its sense of getting up.
anastasis: Resurrection; a rising or standing up.
ἀνάστασις
This is the same root family used for resurrection, linking Tabitha’s rising with the language of being raised.
THE PATTERN
A word of life meets what lies still, and the body answers with movement.
And he grasped the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cumi, little girl, I say to you, arise."And he came and touched the bier, and those carrying him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say to you, Wake.So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, a very great army.THE THREAD
Jesus said to her, I am the rising, and the life. Whoever leans their weight into me, even if they die, will live.The Greek word translated “arise” in Acts belongs to the same root family as the word translated “resurrection” here. The shared root makes resurrection sound like what the verse shows: rising to stand.
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