What Does Acts 2:24 Mean in the King James?
Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
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
Death’s “pains” are birth pangs: its pressure is real, but it cannot hold back the life God raises.
THE MEANING
God raises Jesus, and death cannot keep its hold on him; its pains carry the image of labor, not an ending with the final say. That claim speaks now wherever death’s pressure feels absolute: what God raises is not owned by death.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is that death’s grasp has the final word over life.
THE ROOT
ὠδῖνας
ōdinas
GROWS FROM
ὠδίν
ōdín
Birth pang, labor pain.
English “pains” can sound like suffering alone, but this word also carries the pangs of labor. The image holds pressure and emergence together: death’s pains are real, yet death cannot hold the one God raises.
ALSO GROWS
ōdinō: To experience labor pangs.
ὠδίνω
In Galatians 4:19, this word describes travail until Christ is formed; it shows the labor image extending beyond physical childbirth.
synōdinō: To undergo birth pangs together.
συνωδίνω
Romans 8:22 uses this word for creation’s groaning, widening the image of pain that presses toward what is coming.
λύσας
lysas
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
To loose, untie, release.
The verse describes death’s pains as loosed: what binds is unbound. The word brings release into the same sentence as resurrection, so death’s grip does not remain intact.
ALSO GROWS
lysis: A loosening, release, or dissolution.
λύσις
This noun makes the unbinding action explicit: what is held together or bound can be loosened.
apolyō: To release, dismiss, or send away.
ἀπολύω
This compound carries the same release action outward, showing how the root can describe a bond or claim being let go.
κρατεῖσθαι
krateisthai
GROWS FROM
κρατ-
krat-
Strength, power, or the act of holding fast.
“holden” in this verse is krateisthai. This word names death’s power to retain or hold, and the verse says that power cannot hold Jesus. The claim is specific: death’s strength meets a boundary it cannot cross.
ALSO GROWS
kratos: Might, strength, or dominion.
κράτος
This related word names the force behind the act of holding, sharpening the verse’s claim about the limit of death’s power.
krataioō: To make strong or strengthen.
κραταιόω
This related verb shows the strength-family from another angle: power can be imparted, while death cannot retain the one God raises.
THE PATTERN
What God brings to life passes through death without being finally held by it.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.THE THREAD
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.The Greek συνωδίνει (synōdinei, labors together in birth pangs) belongs to the same word family as ὠδῖνας (ōdinas, birth pangs), translated “pains” here. Romans widens Acts’ labor image to creation’s present groaning: the pain is real, but it is not the final meaning of the story.
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