What Does Acts 13:46 Mean in the King James?
Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
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 verse locates the verdict of unworthiness in the act of pushing the word away: the word is offered, and you judge yourself by refusing it.
THE MEANING
God’s word reaches you as something spoken. When you push it away, you judge yourself unworthy of the life of the ages, and the message turns toward the nations. The verse places refusal and self-judgment in the same movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that “unworthy” is simply a label placed on you from outside: the verse says you judge yourself unworthy as you push the word away.
THE ROOT
ἀπωθεῖσθε
apōtheisthe
GROWS FROM
ὠθέω (ōtheō), with ἀπό (apo)
ὠθέω means to push or thrust; with ἀπό, “away,” the word means to push away or reject.
“Put it from you” carries the force of a push, not merely a failure to receive. The verb assigns that refusal to those addressed: they push the word away, then judge themselves unworthy.
ALSO GROWS
ōtheō: to push, thrust
ὠθέω
Its physical force gives “put it from you” the image of actively pushing the word aside.
apōtheō: to push away, reject
ἀπωθέω
This compound carries the same force into the act of rejection named in the verse.
αἰωνίου
aiōniou
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age or era; αἰώνιος describes what belongs to an age or ages.
The word behind “everlasting” stays anchored to αἰών, “age.” The phrase opens onto the life of the ages, rather than leaving “everlasting” as an abstract measure of time.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: age, era
αἰών
This is the seed word beneath the phrase translated “everlasting life.”
aiōnios: belonging to an age; age-long
αἰώνιος
This adjective describes the life the verse says the hearers judge themselves unworthy of.
κρίνετε
krinete
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
“judge yourselves” in this verse is krinete. The verb places the judgment in the hearers’ own act: they are the ones who judge themselves unworthy. That makes the refusal more than a rejection of a message; it becomes their verdict about their relation to the life offered.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: judgment, decision
κρίσις
The shared root shows that judging carries the force of making a decision.
kritēs: judge
κριτής
The person who judges shares the same root as the act the hearers turn upon themselves.
THE PATTERN
A life-giving word can be refused, and that refusal exposes the hearer’s own judgment about life.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.THE THREAD
He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.Both verses use λόγος (logos, “word”): here the word is pushed away, and in John the rejected word is named as the judge. What is refused becomes the measure by which that refusal is seen.
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