What Does Acts 16:12 Mean in the King James?
And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.
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 word translated “abiding” pictures days as something spent through, making staying part of the journey itself.
THE MEANING
Movement reaches a place, then gives way to days spent there. A destination becomes a lived setting through the time that unfolds within it.
THE ROOT
διατρίβοντες
diatribontes
GROWS FROM
τρίβω
tribō
To rub or wear down; in related words, to spend time.
The verse’s διατρίβοντες (diatribontes), “abiding,” comes from διατρίβω (diatribō), built on τρίβω (tribō). A related word, τρίβος (tribos), means a beaten path: one carries the trace of feet passing over ground, the other of time spent in a place.
ALSO GROWS
diatribō: Spend time; stay in a place.
διατρίβω
This is the verb behind “abiding,” showing that the stay is measured as time spent there.
tribos: A beaten path or track.
τρίβος
It shares the root’s image of something worn through repeated passage, echoing how days are spent through a stay.
THE PATTERN
Arrival becomes experience through time spent in a place.
And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.THE THREAD
And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.Acts 20:6 uses the same Greek verb, διατρίβω (diatribō), for the seven days spent at Troas. The repeated wording makes the texture of “abiding” clear: it is time spent in a place, not merely a stop along the way.
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