What Does Acts 19:16 Mean in the King James?
And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
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 name is nature, not a borrowed formula: here, invoked authority collapses into domination, exposure, and wounds.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the gap between naming power and carrying its nature: borrowed authority offers no shelter when a stronger force takes the body. The outcome is visible in the body, flight, nakedness, and wounds. The scene holds the encounter as domination and injury, not a harmless failure of words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that pronouncing a sacred name automatically makes its power available to the speaker.
THE ROOT
ἐφαλόμενος
ephalomenos
GROWS FROM
ἅλλομαι
to leap, spring up
“leaped on” in this verse is ephalomenos. The root for a leap appears here in a compound meaning to leap upon, turning motion into an assault. The same root describes a healed man’s leap in Acts 3:8, where movement carries him into the temple praising God.
ALSO GROWS
hallomai: to leap, spring up
ἅλλομαι
The base verb names the leap shared with the restored man’s movement in Acts 3:8.
exallomai: to leap up or out
ἐξάλλομαι
This related compound appears in Acts 3:8; the restored leap moves upward into the temple, while this verse’s leap lands upon others.
κατακυριεύσας
katakurieusas
GROWS FROM
κύριος
lord, master
The word translated “overcame” carries the force of lording over or dominating. The following “prevailed against” adds the strength of the assault, so the English sequence moves from subjection to the result: the men flee wounded.
ALSO GROWS
kyrieuo: to rule, exercise lordship
κυριεύω
This related verb shows that “overcame” describes domination, not merely winning a contest.
kyrios: lord, master
κύριος
The root’s sense of mastery clarifies the control expressed in the verse.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνέω
to breathe, blow
The Greek word holds breath and spirit together; here, the spirit is within a man and the encounter unfolds through bodies being overpowered. English “spirit” can sound detached from bodily breath, while the source word keeps those meanings close.
ALSO GROWS
pneo: to breathe, blow
πνέω
This verb shares the root and keeps the sense of moving air audible within “spirit.”
pneumatikos: pertaining to spirit or breath
πνευματικός
This related word carries the same family into the quality described as spiritual.
THE PATTERN
Invoking a sacred name or object as a guarantee cannot substitute for the nature or authority it represents.
And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.THE THREAD
And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.The same leap-root appears in both verses. Here the leap is directed onto others and becomes domination; in Acts 3:8 it carries a restored body into the temple, walking and praising God.
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