What Does Acts 20:11 Mean in the King James?
When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.
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 sign that life has resumed is ordinary: bread is broken, food is received, and conversation continues until dawn.
THE MEANING
After a frightening interruption, life can become ordinary again: food is received, words are shared, and the gathering continues. Restoration includes returning to company and conversation. The night gives way to departure only after shared life resumes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a crisis leaves only an ending is undone here: shared life continues after the interruption.
THE ROOT
κλάσας
klasas
GROWS FROM
κλάω
klaō
to break, break into pieces
“broken” in this verse is klasas. The word for breaking bread belongs to a family that includes both the act of breaking and the pieces it leaves. Here, breaking is not an ending: it opens the meal that sustains the gathering until dawn.
ALSO GROWS
klasis: breaking
κλάσις
This noun names the breaking of bread, making the shared action in this verse visible elsewhere in the same Greek word family.
klasma: a broken piece or fragment
κλάσμα
The fragment remains part of the whole loaf; the word keeps the meal’s sharing present even in what has been broken off.
ὁμιλήσας
homilesas
GROWS FROM
ὁμιλέω
homileō
to converse, associate with, or keep company
“talked” in this verse is homilesas. The word for talking carries the sense of being in company, so the long conversation is also a continued presence with one another. The gathering does not merely exchange words; it stays together through the night.
ALSO GROWS
homilia: conversation or association
ὁμιλία
This noun shows the same link between speaking and being together that shapes the long conversation here.
homilos: a company or gathering
ὅμιλος
This related word makes the social setting audible within the word for conversation: speech happens among people gathered together.
THE PATTERN
A shared meal becomes a setting where presence and renewed life are received.
And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,THE THREAD
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.The Greek verb κλάω (klaō, “to break”) names the bread-breaking in both verses. In Luke, that shared breaking is followed by recognition; here, the same action comes after a frightening interruption, placing restored life back at the table.
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