What Does Acts 2:17 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
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
God’s breath is poured across all human flesh, appearing through women and men, young and old, not reserved for a single kind of person.
THE MEANING
God’s breath reaches all human flesh; it is expressed through sons and daughters speaking, young people seeing, and old people dreaming. No sex or generation holds a monopoly on these forms of perception.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God’s voice belongs only to men, elders, or a chosen few gives way: the verse names daughters and young people among those who speak and see.
THE ROOT
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ-
pneu-
The word family of breathing and blowing; πνεῦμα can mean breath, wind, or spirit.
English separates what Greek holds in one word: the breath poured out is also the Spirit. The verse says this breath reaches all flesh and takes expression in speech, visions, and dreams.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: to blow or breathe
πνέω
This verb makes the movement inside pneuma audible: the Spirit is named with the language of breath and wind.
pnoē: breath or a blowing
πνοή
Acts 2:2 uses this related word for the rushing wind, linking the breath of Acts 2:17 to the wind that fills the house.
σάρκα
sarka
GROWS FROM
σαρκ-
sark-
Flesh: bodily human life.
The breath rests upon sarx, the word for flesh, not a separate spiritual class. The verse then names different bodies and life stages as recipients and speakers.
ALSO GROWS
sarkinos: made of flesh
σάρκινος
This related form keeps the material, embodied sense of flesh in view.
sarkikos: fleshly or pertaining to flesh
σαρκικός
Its shared stem makes clear that the verse’s ‘all flesh’ concerns human life in its bodily condition.
προφητεύσουσιν
prophēteusousin
GROWS FROM
προφητ-
prophēt-
The Greek word family for prophetic speaking or declaration.
“prophesy” in this verse is prophēteusousin. The promise does not describe the sons and daughters only as receivers: they themselves speak. In the same word family, the action, the prophet, and prophecy belong together.
ALSO GROWS
prophētēs: prophet
προφήτης
The related noun names the person who speaks prophetically, including the sons and daughters named here.
prophēteia: prophecy
προφητεία
This noun names the prophetic speech itself, the expression the verse says comes through many people.
THE PATTERN
When God gives the breath, it crosses boundaries of status and people and becomes visible through many voices.
And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.THE THREAD
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:Acts names the gift pneuma, the same Greek word that carries the meanings breath, wind, and spirit. John makes that connection visible as Jesus breathes on them and names the gift as the Holy Ghost.
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