What Does Acts 14:17 Mean in the King James?
Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
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
Rain and harvest are testimony: the unseen God is disclosed through the good that sustains and gladdens life.
THE MEANING
The goodness reaching you through ordinary provision is a witness to the God you may not see. Rain, fruitful seasons, food, and gladness are not empty background; life is being sustained and made glad through them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God is silent or absent unless a spectacular sign appears; this verse names rain, food, and gladness as testimony already present.
THE ROOT
ἀμάρτυρον
amartyron
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
to bear witness, testify
“without witness” in this verse is amartyron. The phrase says God does not leave himself without testimony. Its content is not an argument but the repeated goodness of rain and fruitful seasons: provision itself bears witness.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness
μάρτυς
This is the person who bears testimony; here the created gifts bear witness to the giver.
martyria: testimony, witness
μαρτυρία
This names the testimony itself, which the verse locates in the goodness that reaches ordinary life.
ἐδίδου
edidou
GROWS FROM
δο-/δω- (do-/dō-; δίδωμι / didōmi family)
to give, grant
“gave” in this verse is edidou. The verb presents the giving as ongoing or repeated, so rain and harvest are not isolated favors but a continuing stream. The same giving family names life, breath, and all things in Acts 17:25, placing seasonal provision within the larger gift of being alive.
ALSO GROWS
dosis: a giving; a gift
δόσις
This branch brings the act of giving into view: rain is something received, not something life produces for itself.
dōrea: gift, freely given gift
δωρεά
This branch illuminates the unearned character of the provision described here.
THE PATTERN
The unseen giver makes himself known through ordinary provision that sustains and gladdens life.
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.THE THREAD
Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;The same act of giving that appears here as rain and harvest is named as the source of life, breath, and all things. This opens the rain as one visible strand in a continuous gift of existence.
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