What Does Acts 20:22 Mean in the King James?
And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
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 breath can bind you to a destination while leaving the future unopened.
THE MEANING
You move under a binding of the breath toward wholeness, while what awaits remains unknown. Direction can be present before the outcome is visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that guidance must include a map of every consequence; the verse holds direction and uncertainty together.
THE ROOT
πνεῦματι
pneumati
GROWS FROM
πνευ
pneu
To breathe or blow; breath, wind.
The Greek word rendered “spirit” here also names breath and wind elsewhere. English separates those senses, while the root lets the verse hold an inward binding together with the movement of breath.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: blow, breathe
πνέω
This verb shares the breath-and-motion sense carried by pneuma.
pnoē: breath, blast
πνοή
It makes the root’s concrete breath-sense visible beneath the English “spirit.”
δεδεμένος
dedemenos
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
Bind, tie.
“bound” in this verse is dedemenos. The word presents a binding already in force as the journey begins. That bond gives the movement direction, while the verse leaves its outcome unknown.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: bond, chain
δεσμός
It shows the tangible force contained in “bound.”
desmios: prisoner, one in bonds
δέσμιος
It carries the same binding into the state of being held.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Be whole, complete, sound.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name carries shalom, wholeness, with the dual ending: two wholenesses. The movement is toward wholeness even though the way ahead is undisclosed.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, completeness
שָׁלוֹם
It reveals the wholeness carried in Jerusalem’s name.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It shares the root’s sense of becoming or being complete.
THE PATTERN
A direction can be binding even while its outcome remains unknown.
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)THE THREAD
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.John uses the same Greek word, πνεῦμα (pneuma, breath), for both the “wind” that blows and the “Spirit” of birth. That shared word links this verse’s binding in the breath to movement whose full path remains unseen.
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