What Does Acts 10:38 Mean in the King James?
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same Greek power-family names both domination and God’s power, while the anointed one turns power toward healing.
THE MEANING
God’s presence is active in the reader’s present: it anoints, breathes, empowers, and moves toward healing. The power pressing a person down is not the only power at work; the verse places it against a power that does good and restores.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being pressed down does not mean God is absent or powerless; the verse shows divine power meeting oppression through healing.
THE ROOT
καταδυναστευομένους
katadynasteuomenous
GROWS FROM
δύναμαι (dynamai), the δύνα- (dyna-) power-family
to be able; to have power or capacity
“Oppressed” belongs to the same power-family as the verse’s word for “power.” The family can describe power used to dominate and power that works for healing, putting two opposed uses of power in view.
ALSO GROWS
dynamis: power, capacity
δύναμις
This is the word translated “power” in the verse, linking God’s power with the force that dominates.
dynasteuō: to rule with power, dominate
δυναστεύω
This is the verb-family behind “oppressed”; its form here describes people held under another’s power.
ἔχρισεν
echrisen
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
to anoint, apply oil
The action of anointing and the title “the anointed one” grow from the same Greek word. The verse presents Jesus’ identity and his empowering as one connected reality.
ALSO GROWS
christos: the anointed one
χριστός
This is the title built from the same root as “anointed,” so the verse’s action names the nature of the one it describes.
chrisma: anointing
χρῖσμα
This noun names the anointing itself, carrying the verse’s action into a thing received.
ἁγίῳ πνεύματι
hagiō pneumati
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
to blow, breathe
“Holy Ghost” in this verse is hagiō pneumati. The familiar “Ghost” rendering also carries the word’s concrete breath-and-wind sense. The verse places this set-apart Breath alongside anointing and power, as a presence moving with the healing work.
ALSO GROWS
pneuma: breath, wind
πνεῦμα
This is the word translated “Ghost” here, restoring its breath-and-wind sense.
pnoē: breath, breeze, blast
πνοή
This related word keeps the same movement of air audible in the root.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence becomes visible as release and healing for people held under oppression.
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,The same Greek verb translated “anointed” appears in both verses. Luke shows that the anointing in Acts takes shape as healing, restored sight, and release.
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