What Does Acts 22:5 Mean in the King James?
As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished.
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 shows how authority turns a letter into a chain, making religious legitimacy the route by which bodies are bound.
THE MEANING
The verse places coercion inside a chain of recognized authority: the high priest bears witness, the elders authorize, letters direct, and bound people are carried toward punishment. Its words show how institutional standing can give violence an official route and a human destination.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that violence only comes from lawless actors: here, coercion travels under religious authority and written permission.
THE ROOT
δεδεμένους
dedemenous
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
to bind or tie
The Greek word presents these people as having been bound, the restraint is something done to them, not simply a condition they occupy. Its word family also links physical bonds with burdens imposed by authority, revealing how restraint can be carried on a body or laid upon another person.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: bond, chain, or fetter
δέσμος
This branch makes the physical force behind “bound” visible: the word points toward an actual restraint.
desmios: a bound person or prisoner
δέσμιος
This branch names the person through the bond, showing how binding can determine the way someone is treated and moved.
THE PATTERN
Authority can make harm portable, sending mandates through officials until people bear the consequences.
And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.THE THREAD
For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.The Greek verb translated “bind” here, δεσμεύουσιν (desmeuousin), belongs to the same word family as “bound,” δεδεμένους (dedemenous), in Acts. In Matthew, the binding is a burden laid on others; in Acts, it is physical restraint carried under official authority.
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