What Does Acts 15:41 Mean in the King James?
And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.
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
“Confirming” means making the assemblies firm: the verse describes living communities being strengthened through presence and support.
THE MEANING
An assembly is a gathered community, and its steadiness grows through reinforcing care. The verse joins movement among people with the strengthening of the communities where they gather.
THE ROOT
ἐπιστηρίζων
epistērizōn
GROWS FROM
στηρίζω
stērizō
Make firm, support, establish.
The Greek verb translated “confirming” carries the sense of reinforcing and making firm. Its word family points to firmness itself, so the action is ongoing support for the assemblies, rather than a mere declaration that they are valid.
ALSO GROWS
stērizō: Strengthen, establish, make firm.
στηρίζω
This is the base verb behind “confirming”; it shows the action as support that steadies a community.
stereos: Firm, solid, steadfast.
στερεός
The related word family makes visible the quality the strengthening brings: a community made firm.
ἐκκλησίας
ekklēsias
GROWS FROM
καλέω (kaleō), in ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia)
Call, summon; ἐκκλησία means an assembly, a gathering of people.
The word rendered “churches” names assemblies of people. The strengthening reaches living communities wherever they gather.
ALSO GROWS
klēsis: Calling, invitation.
κλῆσις
It shares the kaleō word family and connects the assembly with the idea of being called together.
klētos: Called, invited.
κλητός
This related word shows the same family’s connection to people summoned into a gathering.
THE PATTERN
Communities become steady through repeated acts of strengthening and support.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.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.But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.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.Acts 14:22 uses the same Greek verb for “confirming,” from stērizō: to strengthen and make firm. Here that reinforcement reaches people directly, opening “confirming the churches” as care that steadies the gathered community.
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