What Does Acts 22:7 Mean in the King James?
And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
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 voice Saul is pursuing identifies itself as the one being pursued.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader in a direct encounter: the one being pursued is not separate from the voice speaking. What is done to the pursued reaches the speaker personally, in the force of the word “me.” The question makes that relationship present and immediate.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that harm can be aimed at someone without reaching the one who identifies with them is undone.
THE ROOT
διώκεις
diōkeis
GROWS FROM
διώκω
diōkō
To pursue or chase; in a hostile context, to persecute.
“persecutest” in this verse is diōkeis. English “persecute” can sound like a fixed category of harm, while the Greek keeps the motion of pursuit audible. The same word family names the pursuit itself and the pursuer, placing both the action and its agent inside the voice’s question.
ALSO GROWS
diōgmos: Pursuit; persecution.
διωγμός
This names the pursuit itself, making persecution part of the same word family as the act Saul is carrying out.
diōktēs: Pursuer; persecutor.
διώκτης
This names the agent of the pursuit, linking the pursuer to the same root as the action.
THE PATTERN
The one who speaks identifies with those being harmed, so what is done to them is addressed as harm to the speaker.
For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?THE THREAD
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.The verb translated “persecute” in both passages belongs to the same Greek root, διώκω (diōkō), meaning “to pursue or chase.” Matthew names that pursuit as being “for my sake”; Acts 22:7 reveals the closeness in that phrase when the voice calls the pursued “me.”
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