What Does Acts 17:23 Mean in the King James?

For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

Acts 17:23 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The inscription calls God unknown, while the verse places that name beside people already honoring the one they do not know.

THE MEANING

You can honor a presence you do not yet recognize. What is unknown can become known through disclosure.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It dissolves the belief that not being able to name God means there is no presence to encounter, or that reverence must wait for full understanding.

THE ROOT

ἄγνωστος

agnōstos

GROWS FROM

⁨γνω-⁩ (gnō-, from ⁨γινώσκω⁩)

To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.

⁨ἄγνωστος⁩ (agnōstos, unknown) sits beside ⁨ἀγνοοῦντες⁩ (agnoountes, not knowing), echoing the negation of knowing in the verse’s wording. The declaration opens a movement from what is not recognized toward what can be made known.

ALSO GROWS

gnōstos: Known, recognized

γνωστός

Unknown negates this very word: it is the known with a negation placed before it.

gnōsis: Knowing, knowledge

γνῶσις

This branch shows the direction opened by the declaration: from what is not recognized toward knowing.

THE PATTERN

A presence can precede recognition, then become knowable through what reveals it.

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.

Genesis 28:16 · KJVThe LORD is present before Jacob recognizes that presence.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Psalm 19:1 · KJVWhat is not directly seen becomes perceptible through what discloses it.

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

John 1:18 · KJVThe unseen God is joined to being declared, echoing the movement from unknown to made known.

THE THREAD

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

Romans 1:19 · KJV

Romans uses ⁨γνωστόν⁩ (gnōston, known), from the same Greek knowing-family as ⁨ἄγνωστος⁩ (agnōstos, unknown) in Acts. Acts names what is not recognized; Romans describes what is knowable being made manifest.

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