What Does Acts 2:3 Mean in the King James?
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
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 firelike sign is divided so it rests upon each person, turning one shared event into an individual share.
THE MEANING
The firelike sign appears as tongues, then comes to rest upon each person in the gathering. What unfolds among the group reaches each one individually; no one is only a spectator.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the sacred can only be witnessed at a distance or concentrated in one exceptional person: here, the sign rests upon each.
THE ROOT
διαμεριζόμεναι
diamerizomenai
GROWS FROM
μερίζω (merizō), from μέρος (meros)
To divide or allot into portions; meros means a part or share.
“Cloven” catches the visible splitting, while the Greek verb also carries the sense of dividing into shares or distributing. The image is not only of something broken apart: its portions come to rest upon each person.
ALSO GROWS
meros: A part or share
μέρος
This root sense makes the tongues look like portions distributed across the gathering.
merizō: To divide, apportion, or assign a share
μερίζω
This is the verb family behind “cloven,” holding both separation and allocation in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A shared divine manifestation is apportioned among individuals so each participates directly.
And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.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:But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.THE THREAD
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.The Greek verb behind “cloven” belongs to the μερίζω (merizō) family, the language of dividing into portions. Romans uses that same root family in “hath dealt” for what is apportioned to each, echoing the individual shares pictured here.
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