What Does Acts 25:21 Mean in the King James?
But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Cæsar.
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
Paul’s appeal changes where his custody is headed, but he remains under guard until the transfer.
THE MEANING
An appeal can change who is set to hear a case without ending the confinement in the meantime. Paul remains under command until he is sent to Caesar: the case is moving while his freedom is still restricted. The verse lets those two realities stand together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that an appeal immediately releases the person making it: Paul’s hearing is redirected to Caesar, but his custody continues.
THE ROOT
τηρεῖσθαι
tēreisthai
GROWS FROM
τηρέω
tēreō
To keep watch over, guard, or preserve.
“kept” in this verse is tēreisthai. This verb carries the idea of continued keeping; the setting tells us that Paul’s keeping is custodial. The same root can describe preserving something, so the word itself names ongoing guard or care, while the context shows what kind it is here.
ALSO GROWS
tērēsis: Keeping, observance.
τήρησις
The noun uses the same root for continued keeping, as in the keeping of God’s commandments; here, that continuity takes the form of custody.
diatēreō: Preserve, keep carefully.
διατηρέω
This compound uses the same root for preserving something over time, widening ‘kept’ beyond confinement while leaving the restrictive force of this scene intact.
ἐπικαλεσαμένου
epikalesamenou
GROWS FROM
καλέω
kaleō
To call, summon, or invoke.
The verb translated ‘appealed’ is built on the word for calling upon someone. Paul’s appeal invokes an authority to hear his case; it changes the direction of the process without itself ending his custody.
ALSO GROWS
kaleō: Call, summon.
καλέω
This base verb makes the appeal’s movement clearer: Paul calls upon an authority to hear him.
klēsis: Calling, invitation.
κλῆσις
This related noun shows the same call-family can describe a summons or calling, while Paul’s own call here is directed toward Caesar’s hearing.
THE PATTERN
Being kept can mark an interval under another’s authority, with a later appearance or outcome still ahead.
And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:THE THREAD
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.John 17:11 uses the same Greek verb, tēreō, for keeping the disciples in the Father’s care. The shared root shows how ‘kept’ can name continued guarding; the context in Acts makes that keeping custodial, while John describes it as protective.
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