What Does Acts 16:2 Mean in the King James?

Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.

Acts 16:2 · KJV

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 verse makes reputation a form of shared seeing: a life becomes known through testimony carried by more than one community.

THE MEANING

Your character becomes visible through the testimony of people who have encountered your life, not only through the account you give of yourself. When that witness converges across communities, it carries the texture of shared knowledge.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that self-description alone can make character credible dissolves here: trustworthiness is also known through the witness of others.

THE ROOT

ἐμαρτυρεῖτο

emartyreito

GROWS FROM

μαρτυρ-

martyr-

To witness or testify; to make something known through testimony.

The word translated “reported” carries the sense of testimony: Timothy’s character is borne witness to by people who know him. English can make this sound like general reputation, while the Greek connects it to the act of testifying.

ALSO GROWS

martys: witness

μάρτυς

A witness is someone whose testimony makes what they have seen or know present to others.

martyria: testimony, witness

μαρτυρία

This noun shows that the same root names both the act of bearing witness and the testimony it leaves.

martyreō: to witness, testify

μαρτυρέω

This verb is the root form behind the verse’s “reported,” making the report an act of witness.

ἀδελφῶν

adelphōn

GROWS FROM

ἀδελφ-

adelph-

Sibling or brother; kin joined as family.

The testimony comes from “brethren,” a word rooted in siblinghood. The verse places this witness inside a community of kin, so the report is shared recognition among people connected to one another.

ALSO GROWS

adelphē: sister

ἀδελφή

The feminine form shows that the family-root names siblings across gender.

adelphotēs: brotherhood, sibling community

ἀδελφότης

This branch extends the same root from individual siblings to a community bound by kinship.

THE PATTERN

A person’s credibility becomes trustworthy when others who encounter that life can attest to it.

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.

Proverbs 27:2 · KJVThe verse places a person’s praise in another’s mouth, echoing the weight of testimony that comes from beyond the self.

Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

Acts 6:3 · KJVThe community’s witness to these men’s character is part of what makes them fit to be entrusted with responsibility.

Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

1 Timothy 3:7 · KJVA person’s conduct is also legible to people outside the immediate community, whose testimony carries real weight.

THE THREAD

Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

Acts 6:3 · KJV

“Honest report” translates a form of the same Greek witness-root as “reported” in Acts 16:2. The shared root ties reputation to testimony that can support the trust others place in a person.

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