What Does Acts 20:17 Mean in the King James?
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.
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 elders are summoned by the same word-family that gives the assembly its name: calling and gathering belong together.
THE MEANING
The elders are called as elders of the assembly, so their role is bound to the life of a gathered community. The summons makes shared responsibility visible: those entrusted with the community are brought into relationship with it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This unsettles the belief that leadership is a private title: the verse places the elders within an assembly and summons them into its life.
THE ROOT
μετεκαλέσατο
metekalesato
GROWS FROM
καλέω
kaleō
to call, invite, or summon
The verb translated “called” belongs to the same word-family as ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia), “assembly,” whose formation includes kaleō, “call.” The verse puts that linguistic echo to work: the elders are summoned in relation to the gathered community they serve.
ALSO GROWS
ekklēsia: assembly
ἐκκλησία
Its formation echoes the root of “called,” linking the gathering of people with the summons in this verse.
klēsis: calling or invitation
κλῆσις
This noun shows the same root taking the form of a call or invitation, beyond the single act of summoning here.
parakaleō: urge, appeal, or comfort
παρακαλέω
The same word-family can express an appeal or comfort, showing how a call can draw people into response and care.
THE PATTERN
Care for a community takes visible form when people are entrusted with its life and brought into relationship with it.
Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;THE THREAD
Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:This verse places “called” and “church” together, as Acts 20:17 places the summons of the elders beside the assembly they belong to. The shared kaleō word-family lets you hear calling and gathering as closely joined parts of communal life.
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