What Does Acts 21:9 Mean in the King James?
And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.
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 verse locates prophetic authority in the act of speaking, not in a male title.
THE MEANING
Four daughters speak, and the verse names what they do as prophecy. Their voices stand inside the text’s own category of prophetic speech.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a woman’s speech cannot be prophecy: this verse calls the daughters’ speech prophetic.
THE ROOT
προφητεύουσαι
prophēteuousai
GROWS FROM
φημί
phēmi
to speak, declare
“prophesy” in this verse is prophēteuousai. English gives the act a specialized word, while Greek keeps it joined to a speech family that names a prophet, a prophetess, and prophecy. The verse places these four daughters in that family through what they do.
ALSO GROWS
prophētēs: prophet
προφήτης
The related noun names the person whose speech belongs to this prophetic family.
prophētis: prophetess
προφήτις
The feminine form makes the daughters’ place in the prophetic speaking family explicit.
prophēteia: prophecy, prophetic speech
προφητεία
This noun names the speech itself, the same kind of speech the daughters enact.
THE PATTERN
Prophetic speech is distributed across people rather than contained in a single gender or office.
And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.THE THREAD
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:The same Greek verb translated “prophesy” appears in both verses. Acts 2:17 names daughters among those who prophesy, and Acts 21:9 makes that naming concrete in four daughters.
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