What Does Acts 18:2 Mean in the King James?
And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.
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
A decree can separate a household from its city, but it cannot prevent the encounter this verse records.
THE MEANING
Power can force people from a place, and that loss is real. Yet displacement does not erase the possibility of a meeting that changes the way forward: this verse places Aquila and Priscilla’s encounter with Paul in the same sentence as their expulsion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being forced out means every meaningful connection is over.
THE ROOT
χωρίζεσθαι
chōrizesthai
GROWS FROM
χωρ-
chōr-
Apart; separation or space between.
The verb χωρίζεσθαι (chōrizesthai, to be separated or depart) comes from χωρίζω (chōrizō, to separate), related to χωρίς (chōris, apart or without). That word-family lets the force of the decree show through: the Jews are made separate from Rome, while Paul’s approach brings him toward Aquila and Priscilla.
ALSO GROWS
chōris: Apart from; without.
χωρίς
This related word makes the spatial force clear: the decree removes people from the place they had been living.
chōrizō: To separate or divide.
χωρίζω
The same verb appears in Romans 8:35, where it asks whether distress or persecution can separate people from Christ’s love; it names separation without deciding that every bond is broken.
THE PATTERN
Separation can change where people stand without deciding what bonds or encounters remain possible.
And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?THE THREAD
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?Romans uses χωρίσει (chōrisei, will separate), from the same verb χωρίζω (chōrizō, to separate) as Acts 18:2. Acts names people separated from Rome; Romans asks whether hardship can separate a person from Christ’s love, showing that the word names real distance without making every bond impossible.
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