What Does Acts 23:13 Mean in the King James?
And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy.
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
More than forty conspirators are not merely gathered in one place: the Greek pictures them as having turned together toward a shared end.
THE MEANING
You see more than forty people joined in a conspiracy; their number makes the coordination impossible to miss. The verse holds their shared threat plainly in view, without softening it.
THE ROOT
συστραφέντες
systraphentes
GROWS FROM
στρεφ- (streph-, from στρέφω, strephō)
Turn or twist; joined with συν (syn, together), the word carries the sense of gathering together.
“conspiracy” in this verse is systraphentes. The Greek συστραφέντες (systraphentes, those gathered together) is built on στρέφω (strephō, turn) with συν (syn, together). The word makes the verse’s number more than arithmetic: these people have turned into a coordinated group around one purpose.
ALSO GROWS
systrophē: A gathering or conspiracy.
συστροφή
This related noun appears in Acts 23:12, linking the conspiracy here to the group’s act of banding together there.
epistrephō: Turn back, return.
ἐπιστρέφω
It shows the same turning root can describe a change of direction; here the turn is collective and hostile.
THE PATTERN
Shared hostility gathers separate people into a coordinated force.
And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,THE THREAD
And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.Acts 23:12 uses συστροφή (systrophē, gathering or conspiracy), from the same συν (syn, together) and στρέφω (strephō, turn) family as συστραφέντες (systraphentes, those gathered together) here. That verse reveals the gathering’s stated aim: they bind themselves to neither eat nor drink until Paul is killed.
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