What Does Acts 21:36 Mean in the King James?
For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.
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 cry rendered “Away with him” is an order to take him away, and the same Greek verb returns in the crowd’s demand against Jesus.
THE MEANING
The verse places one person inside the force of a crowd: many follow, and one command names him only as the one to be removed. Pursuit and shouted demand reinforce each other, showing how collective speech can close around a human being.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a demand becomes just because many voices shout it together: the crowd’s unity amplifies its command to remove one person.
THE ROOT
αἶρε
aíre
GROWS FROM
αἰρ-
air-
To lift, take up, or carry; with an object, to take away or remove.
“Away with him” carries the force of a direct order: “Take him away.” The same verb family holds the senses of lifting and removing, and the removal command returns in John 19:15, aimed at Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
epairō: To lift up or raise; a compound built from αἴρω (aírō, “lift or take away”).
ἐπαίρω
John 11:41 uses it when Jesus lifts his eyes; the shared root holds raising and removal within one family of motion.
âron: “Take away!”; an imperative form of αἴρω (aírō, “lift or take away”).
ἆρον
John 19:15 uses this form in the crowd’s demand against Jesus, followed by “crucify him.”
THE PATTERN
When many voices converge, a person can become the target of a shared command.
Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar.THE THREAD
But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar.Acts has αἶρε (aíre, “take him away!”), from αἴρω (aírō, “lift or take away”); John uses ἆρον (âron, “take away!”), another imperative form of the same verb. John’s “crucify him” makes the bodily threat inside the removal command explicit.
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