What Does Acts 13:3 Mean in the King James?
And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
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 sending is a release: prayerful touch marks a calling that moves beyond the gathered community.
THE MEANING
A calling can be recognized within a community without being confined to it. Prayer, fasting, and hands laid upon those being sent accompany their release into the work; the departure carries communal recognition with it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that release means abandonment: those being sent are surrounded first by fasting, prayer, and the touch of the community.
THE ROOT
ἀπέλυσαν
apelysan
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
To loosen, release, or unbind.
“sent them away” in this verse is apelysan. The Greek verb carries the image of release within the act of sending. Here that release follows fasting, prayer, and hands laid upon them, so departure carries the community’s recognition with it as they move into their work.
ALSO GROWS
apolysis: Release, dismissal.
ἀπόλυσις
This noun preserves the root’s sense of release and makes the movement in “sent them away” more than a change of location.
katalyo: Take down, dismantle, dissolve.
καταλύω
This compound shares the root’s image of loosening; the same root can describe release or the taking apart of what is set in place.
THE PATTERN
A calling moves into action when a person is released to go.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.THE THREAD
So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:Acts 15:30 uses the same Greek verb, ἀπολύω (apoluo), meaning release or dismiss. In both verses, people leave a gathered community carrying work entrusted to them.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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