What Does Acts 16:24 Mean in the King James?
Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
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 wooden stocks and the tree where Jesus is hanged share one Greek word, so the verse names its restraint with the same word scripture uses for the tree of execution.
THE MEANING
Confinement here is physical and severe: the space closes to the inner prison, and the feet are secured. The verse gives the reader language for constraint that reaches the body and takes away movement. The word behind “stocks” also means wood or tree, keeping the material of restraint in view.
THE ROOT
ξύλον
xylon
GROWS FROM
ξύλον
xylon
Wood; a tree, or an object made of wood.
The Greek word rendered “stocks” names the wooden instrument fastening their feet. The same noun can mean “tree,” including the tree where Jesus is hanged, so the word holds the material of restraint and execution together.
ALSO GROWS
xylinos: Wooden; made of wood.
ξύλινος
This related form appears in “vessels of wood” (2 Timothy 2:20), showing the root naming ordinary objects made from the same material.
xylon: Tree; wood.
ξύλον
In Acts 5:30, the same noun is rendered “tree” for where Jesus is hanged, connecting this verse’s wooden stocks to another scene of bodily restraint.
THE PATTERN
Bodily bonds can be real and severe without becoming the final boundary of praise, release, or the word.
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.Where in I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.THE THREAD
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.The Greek noun ξύλον (xylon, “wood” or “tree”) names the stocks here and the tree in Acts 5:30. English renders them with different words, while the shared Greek word keeps the material of both scenes visible.
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