What Does Acts 2:43 Mean in the King James?
And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
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 apostles are not presented as owners of the wonders: their name means “sent ones,” and the signs happen through them.
THE MEANING
Fear can take hold of every living soul when a community encounters works beyond its ordinary measure. The wonders happen through the sent ones, while the signs point beyond what is visible to an action larger than the human agents.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The wonder is only spectacle, with no direction beyond itself.
THE ROOT
ἀποστόλων
apostolōn
GROWS FROM
στελ- (stel-), in ἀποστέλλω (apostellō)
To send away or dispatch.
The apostles are the sent ones: the verse says the wonders and signs happen through them. Their name places the human agents inside a movement of sending, rather than making them the source or owners of what happens.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: A sent one, envoy, or delegate.
ἀπόστολος
This is the name used for the people through whom the signs occur.
apostolē: A sending or commission.
ἀποστολή
It reveals the sending behind the role: the apostles carry out what has been entrusted to them.
σημεῖα
sēmeia
GROWS FROM
σημ- (sēm-), related to σῆμα (sēma)
A mark, signal, or sign that indicates something.
“signs” in this verse is sēmeia. A sign is more than an unusual event: it is a visible marker that points toward what it signifies. Paired with wonders, it holds astonishment and direction together, the marvel is seen, and it points beyond itself.
ALSO GROWS
sēma: A mark or sign.
σῆμα
It brings out the marking function within the word translated “signs.”
sēmainō: To indicate, signify, or make known.
σημαίνω
It shows how a sign points beyond the visible mark to what it makes known.
φόβος
phobos
GROWS FROM
φοβ-
phob-
Fear or alarm; a response of being struck with fear.
The word keeps the force of fear; it need not be reduced to gentle admiration. The verse says it comes upon every living soul, making the response communal as well as personal.
ALSO GROWS
phobeomai: To fear or be afraid.
φοβέομαι
This verb preserves the felt force of the response named by phobos.
phoberos: Fearsome or formidable.
φοβερός
It shows that the same word family can describe what provokes fear.
THE PATTERN
A visible sign makes an unseen action legible by pointing beyond itself.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:THE THREAD
Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:The same pairing of wonders and signs appears in Peter’s description of what God does through Jesus. Acts 2:43 extends that pattern through the apostles, the sent ones, so the signs are carried through human lives without making those people their source.
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