What Does Acts 11:7 Mean in the King James?
And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
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 voice places slaughter and nourishment in one command, while the next verses reveal that the boundary being challenged reaches beyond food to people.
THE MEANING
The voice calls Peter by name and commands him to rise, slay, and eat. The sequence stays bodily and direct: taking life and receiving nourishment stand side by side, without abstraction.
THE ROOT
θῦσον
thyson
GROWS FROM
θύω
thyō
to slaughter, kill, or sacrifice
The verb behind “slay” belongs to the same word family as sacrifice and offering. That family lets sacrificial language sound within the command, which immediately joins slaughter to eating.
ALSO GROWS
thysia: sacrifice, offering
θυσία
The related noun brings the language of an offering into the same word family as the act of killing.
thysiazō: to sacrifice, offer as a sacrifice
θυσιάζω
This related verb shows the family’s range from slaughter to ritual offering.
ἀνάστα
anasta
GROWS FROM
ἀνίστημι
anistēmi
to stand up, rise
“Arise” in this verse is anasta. The command begins by moving Peter into action before it names what he must do. This verb family also names rising and resurrection, so the first word carries the sense of standing up into a changed position.
ALSO GROWS
anastasis: rising, resurrection
ἀνάστασις
The related noun names the rising that follows death, expanding “arise” beyond simply changing posture.
histēmi: to stand, set in place
ἵστημι
This verb is the base of anistēmi and makes the underlying image of standing visible.
THE PATTERN
Divine speech can unsettle boundaries around what may be received as food.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.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.This verse shows where the command leads: Peter is not to call any person common or unclean. The food instruction is the visible sign of a boundary around people being opened.
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