What Does Acts 2:12 Mean in the King James?
And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
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 Greek for “in doubt” carries the feel of having no way through, so their astonishment opens into a question rather than a conclusion.
THE MEANING
When what you encounter exceeds the explanations you have, astonishment and uncertainty can occupy the same moment. Here the question is shared: they turn to one another and ask what they are seeing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that an experience must be immediately clear to be real or meaningful.
THE ROOT
διηπόρουν
diēpóroun
GROWS FROM
πόρος (poros), the passage or means stem in ἄπορος and διαπορέω
A passage, way through, or means; ἄπορος (áporos) means without a passage or means.
The verb translated “were in doubt” describes being at a loss, as though no explanatory way through is yet visible. Their question grows from that impasse: they are amazed, but have not settled what the event means.
ALSO GROWS
aporía: Perplexity; an impasse or lack of a clear way forward.
ἀπορία
This related noun names the unsettled state behind their question: they have encountered something they cannot yet explain.
euporía: Means, resources, or facility.
εὐπορία
It shares the πόρος (poros) passage or means stem; the contrast helps illuminate how being at a loss is like lacking a route to understanding.
poreúomai: To go or travel.
πορεύομαι
This related word carries the sense of moving along a way; here the crowd has reached a point where its path to explanation is unclear.
THE PATTERN
When reality outruns the frame a person brings, the honest first response can be a question.
Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.THE THREAD
And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilæans?The verb ἐξίσταντο (existanto), from ἐξίστημι (existēmi), meaning to be astonished, appears in both verses. In verse 7 their amazement begins with the speakers’ identity; in verse 12 it remains, now opening into a shared question.
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