What Does Acts 2:39 Mean in the King James?
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
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 verse places distance inside the promise: being far away does not put you beyond the Lord’s call.
THE MEANING
The promise is yours now, and it extends to your children and to people who are far away. The Lord’s call reaches across that distance and brings those it reaches within the promise. Distance and belonging coexist here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that being far from the promise makes you unreachable; the verse includes those at a distance among the people the Lord calls.
THE ROOT
μακράν
makran
GROWS FROM
μακρ-
makr-
Long, extended; by extension, distant.
English can make “afar off” sound like an exclusion, but the verse places that distance inside the promise. The μακρ- family carries the sense of extension through space and time: distance is a span the call reaches across, not a boundary that cancels the promise.
ALSO GROWS
makros: long, extended
μακρός
It shows the shared root’s basic sense of length, the spatial distance named in the verse.
makrothymia: patience; slowness to heat
μακροθυμία
The same “long” element extends into time: what is slow to heat is long before it flares.
προσκαλέσηται
proskalesētai
GROWS FROM
καλέω
kaleō
Call, summon.
The verse does not leave the distant people merely within earshot of a promise: it says the Lord calls them. The call crosses the distance and gathers its hearers into the promise.
ALSO GROWS
klētos: called, invited
κλητός
It names the person as one who receives a call, echoing the people included here.
klēsis: calling, invitation
κλῆσις
It names the call itself, showing that the promise reaches people through an invitation from the Lord.
THE PATTERN
The Lord’s promise reaches across distance, drawing those far away into nearness and belonging.
I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.THE THREAD
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.“Far off” translates the same Greek word, μακράν (makran), found in Acts 2:39. Acts places people at a distance within the promise; Ephesians shows that distance giving way to nearness.
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