What Does Acts 20:21 Mean in the King James?
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
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 same Greek εἰς (eis, “toward/into”) aims both turning and trust, joining them as one movement of reorientation.
THE MEANING
Your turning toward God and trust toward the Lord Jesus share one direction; the verse does not leave turning as self-reproach with nowhere to go. Jesus’ name carries deliverance, so the trust named here faces the one whose nature is to bring out.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Repentance is not a loop of self-accusation: here it turns toward God and is joined to trust toward Jesus.
THE ROOT
μετάνοια
metanoia
GROWS FROM
νοέω (noeō), joined with μετά (meta)
To perceive or think; in this compound, the thinking is turned or reoriented.
English “repentance” can sound like regret alone, while μετάνοια names a change in direction. Here it is explicitly aimed toward God, not folded back into self-accusation.
ALSO GROWS
nous: mind, understanding
νοῦς
The turning concerns the direction of perception, not merely an outward display of regret.
metanoeō: turn, change one’s mind
μετανοέω
The related verb presents the noun as an active reorientation.
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
peith-
Persuasion and being persuaded, extending into trust and reliance.
The verse’s faith is trust, not bare agreement: it leans its full weight toward the Lord Jesus. Its root family connects that trust with being persuaded and made steady.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: persuade, be persuaded
πείθω
Trust takes shape as reliance grounded in being persuaded.
pistos: firm, steady; trustworthy
πιστός
The related word gives trust the quality of steadiness, rather than a passing opinion.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-š-ʿ
Deliver, bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua, whose root names deliverance. Trust toward Jesus therefore faces one whose name carries the movement from narrowness into spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: deliver, bring out
יָשַׁע
The verb names the action held within the name Yeshua.
yeshuah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun makes explicit the deliverance carried in the name.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, turning toward God is joined to trust in what God is doing.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.THE THREAD
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;The same Greek word family underlies “repent” here and “repentance” in Acts 20:21; Acts 3:19 pairs that turn with being converted. The turn opens toward refreshing from the Lord’s presence.
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