What Does Acts 21:39 Mean in the King James?

But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.

Acts 21:39 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Paul invokes membership in a distinguished city as he asks to speak, revealing that “citizen” carries a whole civic world inside it.

THE MEANING

Your identity can hold a people and a place even when the moment casts you as captive. Here that belonging accompanies a request to address the crowd: the one under restraint still seeks a place in public speech.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that being under restraint leaves you with no standing to ask for a hearing.

THE ROOT

πολίτης

polítēs

GROWS FROM

πόλις

polis

City; a civic community and the people who belong to it.

“Citizen” can sound like a status held by one person, but its root keeps the city in the word. Paul names his belonging to a distinguished city as he asks to address the people, joining civic identity with public voice.

ALSO GROWS

politeía: Citizenship, commonwealth, or civic order.

πολιτεία

It shows that the city-root can name a shared civic world, not only an individual’s status.

politeúomai: To live or conduct oneself as a citizen.

πολιτεύομαι

It carries belonging into how a person moves through the civic world named in Paul’s claim.

THE PATTERN

A request or charge to speak brings a person’s position into public view.

Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:

Esther 7:3 · KJVEsther speaks from a vulnerable position and makes her life and her people the substance of her request.

Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself:

Acts 26:1 · KJVPermission to speak opens a public hearing for Paul’s own account.

But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

Jeremiah 1:7 · KJVA charge to speak brings Jeremiah’s voice before the people despite the position he names.

THE THREAD

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Philippians 3:20 · KJV

The word rendered “conversation” is ⁨πολίτευμα⁩ (políteuma), meaning commonwealth or citizenship; it belongs to the same ⁨πόλις⁩ (polis, city) family as ⁨πολίτης⁩ (polítēs, citizen) here. The city named in Acts opens onto a deeper sense of belonging: a shared civic world.

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