What Does Acts 22:12 Mean in the King James?
And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt 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 Greek “good report” is testimony received from others: devotion becomes credible when those around a person can bear witness to it.
THE MEANING
A life shaped by reverence and instruction is visible to the people around it. Its credibility rests in their testimony, not merely in its own claim.
THE ROOT
μαρτυρούμενος
marturoumenos
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ
Witness or testify; the stem μαρτυρ (martyr) names testimony given about someone.
“good report” in this verse is marturoumenos. The Greek form μαρτυρούμενος (marturoumenos) means being testified about. The verse presents trustworthiness as a community’s witness to a life, rather than the person’s own claim.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness
μάρτυς
A witness is one who can attest to what is seen; the verse frames Ananias’s standing through others’ testimony.
martyria: testimony
μαρτυρία
This names the witness or testimony that gives a “good report” its substance.
martyreō: to testify
μαρτυρέω
The verb makes explicit the act implied by the verse’s description of Ananias as one testified about.
εὐσεβής
eusebēs
GROWS FROM
σεβ
Reverence; the stem σεβ (seb) carries the sense of revering.
“devout” in this verse is eusebēs. The word joins “well” with reverence. Here devotion is expressed within instruction and becomes legible in the testimony of the surrounding community.
ALSO GROWS
sebomai: to revere
σέβομαι
The verb names the revering at the heart of being called devout.
eusebeia: reverence, piety
εὐσέβεια
This related form shows the same root of reverence expressed as a quality of life.
νόμον
nomon
GROWS FROM
νεμ
Allot or assign; the family is associated with νέμω (nemō), “to allot” or “to distribute,” and νόμος (nomos), “instruction” or an established rule.
The word translated “law” also belongs to a family tied to ordering and assigning. The verse presents Ananias’s reverence as shaped by instruction, not as an isolated private feeling.
ALSO GROWS
nemō: to allot, assign, distribute
νέμω
This related verb brings an ordering sense to the instruction that shapes Ananias’s life.
nomē: allotment, pasture
νομή
The shared consonants connect instruction with what is assigned or laid out; here the emphasis is on a life formed within instruction.
THE PATTERN
A life’s credibility becomes visible through the testimony of those who can observe it.
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.THE THREAD
For by it the elders obtained a good report.Hebrews uses the same Greek witness root as “having a good report” here: the elders are testified to. Both verses show a life’s standing as testimony received from beyond the self.
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