What Does Acts 13:40 Mean in the King James?
Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;
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
“Beware” means “see”: the verse brings the prophetic warning close enough to be perceived as something that can come upon you.
THE MEANING
The reader is addressed now as someone who can meet this warning as lived reality. “Beware” is an imperative to look and perceive; what has been spoken is not merely distant information, but something that may come upon the reader.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the assumption that a prophetic warning concerns only someone else: the verse says what was spoken can come upon you.
THE ROOT
βλέπετε
blepete
GROWS FROM
βλέπω
blepō
To see, look, or perceive; in this form, an imperative: “look” or “see.”
“Beware” in this verse is blepete. English makes this sound only like caution, while the Greek verb names an act of sight. The warning hinges on perceiving what is before you, not simply possessing information about it.
ALSO GROWS
apoblepō: Look intently; fix one’s attention.
ἀποβλέπω
This compound keeps the root of seeing and shows how attention can be directed toward what matters.
emblepō: Look at; gaze upon.
ἐμβλέπω
This form also grows from βλέπω, keeping the focus on seeing something directly rather than leaving it at a distance.
ἐπέλθῃ
epelthē
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι (erchomai), with ἐπί (epi)
ἔρχομαι means to come or arrive; ἐπί adds the sense of coming upon or reaching.
“come upon” in this verse is epelthē. The phrase gives the warning motion: what has been spoken can arrive upon the hearer. The word is presented not as a static statement but as something that may meet the reader.
ALSO GROWS
erchomai: Come, go, or arrive.
ἔρχομαι
This is the verb at the center of ἐπέλθῃ: the warning can arrive.
eiserchomai: Enter or go in.
εἰσέρχομαι
This related compound uses the same coming verb with εἰς (“into”), making visible the movement from arrival toward entry.
THE PATTERN
A spoken warning presses into the present because what it names can arrive as lived encounter.
And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.THE THREAD
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.Acts 13:40 points to the prophets; the next verse quotes this warning from Habakkuk. Its words make the danger concrete: a work can unfold in the reader’s days that remains hard to believe, even when it is declared.
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