What Does Acts 22:23 Mean in the King James?

And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air,

Acts 22:23 · 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.

THE KEY

The Greek throwing-root links these flung garments to people cast down and to cares cast onto God: one motion can expose distress or place it elsewhere.

THE MEANING

Fury takes over the whole scene: voices rise, garments are flung aside, and dust is sent into the air. Inner agitation becomes something bodies and surroundings display.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Anger is only a private feeling or a matter of words. Here it appears in bodies and in what they throw.

THE ROOT

ῥιπτούντων

rhiptountōn

GROWS FROM

ῥιπ-

rhip-

To throw, fling, or cast down.

English can make “cast off” sound like simply discarding clothing, but the same Greek root appears in words for people cast down and cares cast onto God. Here the throwing makes the crowd’s fury physical; elsewhere, the same motion can place what weighs on someone into another’s care.

ALSO GROWS

errimmenoi: Cast down, thrown down; rendered “scattered abroad” in Matthew 9:36.

ἐρριμμένοι

The same root describes people laid low, echoing how distress can be made visible in the body.

epiripsantes: Casting upon; rendered “casting” in 1 Peter 5:7.

ἐπιρίψαντες

This compound uses the same throwing root for placing care upon God, showing how the direction of the throw changes what it expresses.

THE PATTERN

Collective fury moves from shared words into visible bodily and material action.

But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

Numbers 14:10 · KJVThe congregation’s opposition becomes a collective threat expressed through stones.

Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

Acts 7:57 · KJVThe outcry is joined by bodies blocking their ears and rushing together.

Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

John 8:59 · KJVHostility becomes visible in the stones the crowd takes up to throw.

THE THREAD

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

1 Peter 5:7 · KJV

The Greek verb for “cast off” here and the verb translated “casting” there share ⁨ῥιπ-⁩ (rhip-, “throw”). Here, the throw sends garments and dust outward in fury; there, the same root describes placing care upon God.

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