What Does Acts 24:16 Mean in the King James?

And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

Acts 24:16 · 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

Conscience here is not merely private comfort: it is practiced, ongoing integrity before God and other people.

THE MEANING

The verse presents integrity as something practiced continually. Your inward knowing is lived out in how you stand before God and other people, with nothing set as a stumbling block between.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It dissolves the idea that conscience is only a private feeling: this verse places it in relationship with God and other people.

THE ROOT

συνείδησιν

syneidēsin

GROWS FROM

⁨σύν⁩ + ⁨οἶδα⁩ (syn + oida)

Know with; be conscious alongside.

The Greek word for conscience carries the sense of knowing-with. The verse places that inward witness toward God and other people, making conscience relational rather than sealed off inside you.

ALSO GROWS

synoida: To know with; to be conscious of.

σύνοιδα

This related verb makes the shared knowing in conscience explicit.

syneidēsis: Conscience; inward moral awareness.

συνείδησις

This noun names the inward witness that the verse describes as continually directed toward God and people.

THE PATTERN

A clear conscience takes shape as sustained relational integrity before God and other people.

And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

Acts 23:1 · KJVConscience is expressed as a way of living before God, not just as a private sense of innocence.

Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

1 Timothy 1:5 · KJVA good conscience belongs alongside love and a sincere trust in the shape of a person’s life.

Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

1 Peter 3:16 · KJVA good conscience remains joined to how a person lives among others, even under accusation.

THE THREAD

Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

Romans 2:15 · KJV

Romans names conscience as a witness; Acts shows what that witness faces toward: God and other people, continually. The shared Greek word connects inward awareness with lived relationships.

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