What Does Acts 19:29 Mean in the King James?
And the whole city was filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre.
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 crowd is confused as a city yet united in impulse: “with one accord” names shared passion, not shared clarity.
THE MEANING
Confusion can fill the whole city while people still move as one: they seize Gaius and Aristarchus and rush together into the theatre. Their accord names a shared impulse; it does not establish shared understanding. Collective force can gather without clarity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A crowd acting with one accord must be thinking clearly.
THE ROOT
ὁμοθυμαδόν
homothymadon
GROWS FROM
ὁμός (homos) + θυμός (thymos)
ὁμός means same; θυμός means passion, heat, or impulse.
“with one accord” in this verse is homothymadon. The Greek word joins “same” with “passion”: the crowd shares an impulse. That shared force can gather people without giving them shared clarity.
ALSO GROWS
thymos: passion, heat, impulse
θυμός
This is the forceful element inside “one accord”: a common passion moving the crowd.
prothymos: eager, ready
πρόθυμος
Its shared θυμός element links accord to an animating readiness, not just a calm agreement.
συγχύσεως
synchyseōs
GROWS FROM
χέω (cheō) + σύν (syn-, together)
χέω means pour; σύν means together.
The Greek word carries the image of things poured together, a tumultuous mixture. English names the confusion but hides that image, set here alongside a crowd moving under one shared passion.
ALSO GROWS
syncheō: pour together; confuse or confound
συγχέω
This verb supplies the image behind the city’s confusion: things running together into disorder.
synchysis: confusion, tumult
σύγχυσις
This noun names the condition that fills the city in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A shared impulse can move a crowd as one, whatever the crowd is doing.
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,THE THREAD
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,Acts 7:57 uses the same Greek word, ὁμοθυμαδόν (homothymadon, “with one passion”), when the crowd runs upon Stephen. In both scenes, “one accord” names a shared impulse that mobilizes bodies; it does not make the act peaceful or clear.
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