What Does Acts 11:17 Mean in the King James?
Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
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 word translated “withstand” also carries the sense of hindering: Peter asks whether he can obstruct a gift God is already giving.
THE MEANING
God gives them the same gift given to those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ. The reader meets a gift whose source and measure are God’s, so another person’s reception does not make it smaller or less real. No one can block God’s giving.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this undoes is that another person’s place outside your circle gives you the right to declare God’s gift invalid.
THE ROOT
κωλῦσαι
kōlysai
GROWS FROM
κωλυ-
kōly-
To hinder, prevent, or forbid.
“withstand” in this verse is kōlysai. The Greek word makes Peter’s question about whether he can block God’s action. What English can sound like a face-to-face challenge also names the attempt to prevent God’s gift from reaching someone.
ALSO GROWS
kōlyō: To hinder, prevent, or forbid.
κωλύω
This is the verb’s dictionary form and gives the action behind Peter’s question.
kōlyma: A hindrance or obstacle.
κώλυμα
It names the kind of barrier Peter recognizes he cannot place in the way of God’s giving.
δωρεὰν
dōrean
GROWS FROM
δωρ-
dōr-
Gift, something given.
This word belongs to the same family as a term for what is given freely. That echo makes “the like gift” sound like bestowed sharing, not a rank earned by belonging to one circle.
ALSO GROWS
dōron: A gift or offering.
δῶρον
It shares the gift-word family and underscores that what is received comes as a giving.
dōrean: Freely, without payment.
δωρεάν
This related form brings out the unpurchased character of a gift.
THE PATTERN
God’s gift crosses humanly policed boundaries, and no person can make its giving smaller by refusing it.
And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.THE THREAD
Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?The same verb appears as “forbid” here and “withstand” in Acts 11:17, naming an attempt to block what God is already doing. The question makes that limit concrete: can anyone bar the water after God has given the same gift?
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