What Does Acts 11:3 Mean in the King James?
Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
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 Greek verb builds “together with them” into “ate,” making the shared table the visible crossing of a boundary.
THE MEANING
The charge names a boundary being crossed: entering the company of uncircumcised men and eating alongside them. The shared meal makes that crossing visible; belonging is enacted at the table.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a boundary marker alone decides who may be received. The complaint exposes that claim through the act of eating together.
THE ROOT
συνέφαγες
synephages
GROWS FROM
ἐσθίω (esthiō), with the aorist stem φαγ- (phag-)
Eat; σύν (syn) means “with” or “together,” so the compound means “eat together with.”
“ate with” in this verse is synephages. The verb συνέφαγες means “you ate together with them”; its “together” is built into the Greek verb. The KJV’s “eat with them” carries this too: the charge concerns shared eating, not merely entering a home.
ALSO GROWS
esthiō: Eat.
ἐσθίω
This is the verb’s present form; eating is the action at the center of the charge.
synesthiō: Eat together or eat with.
συνεσθίω
The σύν (syn, “with/together”) prefix makes the shared nature of the meal explicit.
THE PATTERN
A shared meal makes a boundary visible by treating someone as a companion at the table.
And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.THE THREAD
And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.Acts 10:28 names the judgment beneath the table dispute: a person is not to be called common or unclean. Acts 11:3 shows the contested boundary made visible through entering a home and eating together.
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