What Does Acts 13:50 Mean in the King James?
But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.
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
Opposition turns the standing of devout, honored people into a vehicle for pursuit and expulsion.
THE MEANING
This verse shows how opposition can borrow the standing of devout and honored people, then become public persecution that pushes its targets beyond a community’s bounds. The movement turns hostility into pursuit and then forced removal from a place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that public respectability guarantees fairness: people described as devout and honorable can be stirred into driving others out.
THE ROOT
διωγμός
diōgmos
GROWS FROM
διωκ-
diōk-
to pursue, chase
The noun διωγμός (diōgmos, pursuit or persecution) comes from the verb διώκω (diōkō, pursue or persecute), so persecution retains the force of active pursuit. The word names hostility that moves after its target, rather than disagreement that stays at the level of speech.
ALSO GROWS
diōkō: pursue, chase; persecute
διώκω
The noun in Acts grows from this verb, keeping the sense of pursuit inside the word persecution.
katadiōkō: pursue closely, hunt down
καταδιώκω
This intensified form makes the root’s physical chase visible, clarifying how persecution can become a force that drives people from a place.
ἐκβάλλω
ekballō
GROWS FROM
βαλλ-
ball-
to throw, cast
“expelled” in this verse is ekballō. The verb here combines ἐκ- (ek-, out) with βάλλω (ballō, throw), so expulsion carries the force of casting someone outside. The removal is from a defined place: the verse says they are cast beyond the community’s boundaries.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: throw, cast
βάλλω
This base verb gives the force behind the expulsion: someone is cast out, not simply left behind.
ekbolē: a throwing out; jettisoning
ἐκβολή
This related noun can describe cargo thrown overboard, echoing the verse’s forceful image of removal beyond a boundary.
THE PATTERN
When a community treats a voice as threatening, it can enlist respected people and public institutions to turn opposition into exclusion.
And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.THE THREAD
But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.The persecution noun in Acts and the verb “persecute” in Matthew share the Greek root διωκ- (diōk-, pursue). Matthew’s words show the same pursuit closing one city’s space while another remains ahead.
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