What Does Acts 16:20 Mean in the King James?
And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
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 verb pictures the city as thrown into agitation, showing how the accusation frames these men as a threat to civic order.
THE MEANING
The accusation casts the city’s shared life as thrown into turmoil by these men. You can hear how a public claim turns a group’s presence into a civic crisis, while the sentence leaves the truth of the claim with the speakers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A public accusation of civic disorder is not the same as an established fact; this verse presents the charge as the speakers’ claim.
THE ROOT
ἐκταράσσουσιν
ektarassousin
GROWS FROM
ταράσσω
tarassō
To stir, agitate, or throw into confusion; the base verb of the intensified form in this verse.
“trouble” in this verse is ektarassousin. The verb carries an image of agitation: the charge says the men are throwing the city into commotion. Its word-family also names disturbance and inward unsettlement, linking public uproar with the turmoil a person can feel within.
ALSO GROWS
tarassō: To agitate, stir, or trouble.
ταράσσω
This base verb shows the force beneath the accusation: the city is portrayed as being stirred into unrest.
tarachē: Disturbance, commotion.
ταραχή
This related noun names the state of agitation itself, making the verse’s “trouble” more concrete than a vague complaint.
THE PATTERN
The language of disturbance can describe upheaval in a city’s public life and unrest in a person’s inner life.
And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.THE THREAD
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.Acts 16:20 and John 14:27 use forms of ταράσσω (tarassō, to agitate or trouble). In Acts, the agitation is alleged in a city; in John, it is located in the heart, revealing how the same root reaches across public upheaval and inward unrest.
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