What Does Acts 12:22 Mean in the King James?

And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.

Acts 12:22 · KJV

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 crowd’s “shout” and its naming of a “voice” share one Greek root, so acclaim itself becomes the instrument that crowns a human as divine.

THE MEANING

Public acclaim can make human authority sound ultimate, naming a human voice as a god’s. The verse exposes the gap between the crowd’s certainty and the identity its words assign.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A crowd’s confidence does not make a human being divine.

THE ROOT

ἐπεφώνει

epephōnei

GROWS FROM

φων-

phōn-

sound, voice, calling out

“gave a shout / voice” in this verse is epephōnei. The Greek verb translated “gave a shout” is ⁨ἐπιφωνέω⁩ (epiphōneō, “shout aloud”), built on the same ⁨φων-⁩ stem as ⁨φωνή⁩ (phōnē, “voice”). The crowd’s shout does more than report what it hears: it publicly declares that a human voice is divine.

ALSO GROWS

epiphōneō: to shout aloud, acclaim

ἐπιφωνέω

This is the verb behind “gave a shout,” linking the crowd’s acclaim directly to the word for “voice.”

aphōnos: voiceless, silent

ἄφωνος

This branch also grows from the voice-family, showing that the root concerns voiced sound itself, the very medium the crowd uses to assign divine status.

THE PATTERN

When people elevate human beings toward divine status, Scripture redirects honor to God and exposes self-exaltation.

Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.

Psalm 115:1 · KJVThe verse turns honor away from human claim and toward God.

And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

Acts 14:15 · KJVWhen people raise humans to divine status, the speakers name their shared humanity and point to the living God.

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Matthew 23:12 · KJVThe verse exposes the reversal built into self-exaltation.

THE THREAD

And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

John 10:4 · KJV

John uses the same Greek word, ⁨φωνή⁩ (phōnē, “voice”), for the voice the sheep know. In Acts, a crowd uses a voice to declare divinity; in John, the voice is recognized by its source.

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