What Does Acts 23:16 Mean in the King James?
And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul.
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 verb “told” belongs to the same word-family as “messenger”: the nephew carries the hidden plan to the person it threatens.
THE MEANING
A hidden threat is real, yet its secrecy is not complete: the warning reaches the person it targets. The verse holds the concealed plan and the arriving report together, showing that what is arranged against you can become known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a threat becomes untouchable when it is hidden; the ambush is concealed, yet its warning reaches Paul.
THE ROOT
ἀπήγγειλεν
apēngeilen
GROWS FROM
ἀπαγγέλλω
apaggellō
to report, announce, or carry a message to someone
The verb translated “told” shares its word-family with ἄγγελος (angelos), meaning messenger. The nephew’s role is more than speaking: he carries news from the hidden plot to the person it threatens.
ALSO GROWS
angelos: messenger
ἄγγελος
The same word-family names the one who carries a message, making the nephew a human messenger in the scene.
angelia: message, report
ἀγγελία
The report is what travels through the messenger and turns a concealed plan into known information.
THE PATTERN
A concealed threat loses its secrecy when someone carries what they have heard to the person in danger.
But Jonathan Saul’s son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai’s name.And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David, and said unto David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you.THE THREAD
And the disciples of John shewed him of all these things.Luke uses the same Greek verb when John’s disciples report these things to him. The shared root reveals the act as message-bearing: a report crosses the distance between what is happening and the person who needs to know.
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