What Does Acts 15:32 Mean in the King James?
And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them.
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
Words that urge you onward can also make your footing firmer.
THE MEANING
Words can reach you as both an appeal and a strengthening, leaving you steadier as you share life with others. Here, many words carry both encouragement and confirmation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that encouragement is only a passing feeling: words can also help establish a firmer footing.
THE ROOT
ἐπεστήριξαν
epestērixan
GROWS FROM
στηρίζω
stērizō
Make firm, support, establish.
“Confirmed” can suggest agreement, while this verb carries the added sense of making someone firm. The words leave the brethren with steadier footing.
ALSO GROWS
stērizō: Strengthen, establish.
στηρίζω
In Luke 22:32, the KJV says “strengthen thy brethren”: firmness can be passed from one person to another.
stērigmos: Steadfastness, firm footing.
στηριγμός
In 2 Peter 3:17, the KJV renders this related word “stedfastness,” naming the stability these words help build.
παρεκάλεσαν
parekalesan
GROWS FROM
καλέω (kaleō), within παρακαλέω (parakaleō)
Καλέω means call or summon; παρακαλέω carries the sense of urging, appealing, or comforting.
The verb’s range holds exhortation and comfort together: the words call someone toward a response while offering support. English “exhorted” can leave that comforting note less visible.
ALSO GROWS
klēsis: Calling, invitation.
κλῆσις
This related noun keeps the sense of a call beneath the appeal made by exhortation.
ekklēsia: Assembly.
ἐκκλησία
This word for assembly shares the καλέω word family, linking the act of urging with the gathered community.
THE PATTERN
Speech serves a community when it encourages people and leaves them more firmly grounded.
The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.THE THREAD
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.This verse uses the same Greek verbs for strengthening and exhortation, in reversed order. The shared roots show the paired work of speech: it steadies people and urges them onward.
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