What Does Acts 22:21 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.
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 command to leave is not an empty exit; the same sentence opens toward people beyond the familiar circle.
THE MEANING
The verse joins departure to purpose: the speaker tells him to go and promises to send him toward distant peoples. Its living pattern is that distance can become the space where a familiar circle opens toward others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that leaving can only mean loss or exclusion: here, departure opens a path toward a wider human reach.
THE ROOT
ἐξαποστελῶ
exapostelō
GROWS FROM
στέλλω
stellō
To set in order, prepare, or equip; in compounds, to dispatch.
“send” in this verse is exapostelō. The verb carries the force of sending out: the speaker does not merely name a journey but claims agency in dispatching the traveler. Its word family calls a messenger one who is sent, joining movement with commission.
ALSO GROWS
apostellō: Send away, dispatch
ἀποστέλλω
This sending stem appears within the verse’s verb, making the command more than a simple departure.
apostolos: Messenger, one sent
ἀπόστολος
The same word family names a messenger by the sending they carry, placing purpose inside the movement.
ἔθνη
ethnē
GROWS FROM
ἔθνος
ethnos
A people or nation, conceived as a collective.
The Greek word translated “Gentiles” is the plural of “people” or “nation,” so the destination is voiced as the nations themselves. That places the emphasis on the reach of the sending across peoples.
ALSO GROWS
ethnos: A people, nation
ἔθνος
The singular names one people; the verse’s plural opens the destination across peoples.
ethnikos: Of the nations; Gentile
ἐθνικός
This related form names someone by relation to the nations, while the verse directs the sending toward those peoples.
μακράν
makran
GROWS FROM
μακρός
makros
Long or extended; by extension, distant.
The same Greek longness can describe distance or duration. Here, “far” makes the sending’s reach expansive, carrying the traveler beyond the near and known.
ALSO GROWS
makrothen: From far away
μακρόθεν
This related form makes the spatial distance explicit, echoing the verse’s extended reach.
makrothymia: Slow to heat; patience
μακροθυμία
The same longness extends from space into the time before anger flares, showing how this word family can express distance and duration.
THE PATTERN
A call that sends someone outward gives movement a destination beyond where they started.
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.THE THREAD
Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,The same sending is voiced through ἀποστέλλω (apostellō, “send”), from the word family of the verb here. The repeated mention of the Gentiles makes the destination the point: being brought out of danger and being sent toward the nations belong together.
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