What Does Acts 15:16 Mean in the King James?
After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
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 Greek says “I will build again” twice, once for David’s fallen dwelling and again for its ruins, so collapse itself is met with rebuilding at every scale.
THE MEANING
A fallen dwelling is still addressable: the speaker returns, rebuilds the tent and its ruins, then sets it upright. The verse holds collapse and restoration in the same sentence without calling the ruins unreal or final. Its action rests with the one who promises to return.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The collapse is final, and nothing that has fallen can be restored.
THE ROOT
ἀνοικοδομήσω
an-oikodomēsō
GROWS FROM
οἰκοδομ-
House-building: raising a structure.
“build again” in this verse is an-oikodomēsō. The Greek verb appears twice, joining the rebuilding of the fallen dwelling to the rebuilding of its ruins. Restoration reaches both the named structure and what remains after its collapse.
ALSO GROWS
oikodomeō: to build a house; to build up
οἰκοδομέω
This is the base verb within “build again,” so rebuilding is the verse’s own repeated action.
oikodomē: a building; a structure
οἰκοδομή
The same word family can name the structure itself, connecting the rebuilding action to the dwelling being restored.
σκηνή
skēnē
GROWS FROM
σκην-
Tent; shelter.
“tabernacle” in this verse is skēnē. The Greek word keeps the image of a tent or shelter. The promise is about a dwelling being raised again, not only an abstract restoration.
ALSO GROWS
skēnoō: to pitch a tent; to dwell
σκηνόω
The related verb links the shelter with the act of dwelling in it.
skēnopoios: tentmaker
σκηνοποιός
This word preserves the same tent image in the name of someone who makes such a shelter.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; the related noun can also mean kinsman.
David’s name carries the Hebrew family of דּוֹד, “beloved.” The verse holds that beloved name beside a fallen dwelling, keeping both in view as restoration is promised.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: beloved; kinsman
דּוֹד
This related word gives the name David its association with belovedness.
dōdîm: loves; expressions of love
דּוֹדִים
This plural form extends the same word family into love itself.
THE PATTERN
Restoration names the fallen structure directly and turns its ruins into the ground of renewed dwelling.
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.The compound ἀνοικοδομήσω in Acts and “built up” in 1 Peter share the Greek house-building family οἰκοδομέω. Acts pictures a collapsed dwelling raised again; Peter carries that building language into a people becoming the dwelling.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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