What Does Acts 2:13 Mean in the King James?
Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
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 accusation reveals how quickly an unfamiliar movement is reduced to a familiar explanation.
THE MEANING
Some hear what they cannot explain and call it drunkenness. Their ridicule tells you how they interpret the moment; it does not, by itself, tell you what the moment means.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that ridicule proves what is really happening dissolves here: the accusation records the mockers’ interpretation, not the event’s meaning.
THE ROOT
χλευάζοντες
chleuazontes
GROWS FROM
χλευ-
chleu-
jest, mockery
“mocking” in this verse is chleuazontes. The Greek stem names ridicule: the speakers are not simply offering a neutral explanation but making the event an object of mockery. The same verb appears when some mock the resurrection in Acts 17:32, linking both scenes through the same response to a message that exceeds the hearers’ frame.
ALSO GROWS
chleuē: mockery; jest
χλεύη
The related noun names the response itself as a jest, rather than an explanation of what the speakers are saying.
chleuazōn: one who mocks; mocking
χλευάζων
This related participle identifies a person by the act of ridicule, as the verse does before quoting the accusation.
THE PATTERN
When an expression exceeds familiar categories, observers can dismiss it as drunkenness, madness, or mockery.
Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.THE THREAD
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.The Greek verb for “mocked” here is the same verb used for “mocking” in Acts 2:13. The shared word connects two moments when an unfamiliar message is met with ridicule.
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