What Does Acts 28:17 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.
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 verse places a claim of innocence beside a transfer of custody: being handed over is not itself a verdict.
THE MEANING
Your circumstances can place you in another’s power without turning accusation into proof. The verse holds a claim of innocence and the reality of being a prisoner side by side; one does not erase the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A person in custody must be guilty. The verse breaks the equation between confinement and culpability.
THE ROOT
παρεδόθην
paredothēn
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι (didōmi), in the compound παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi)
To give; in this compound, to hand over, deliver, or pass on.
“delivered” in this verse is paredothēn. Paul’s word means he is “given over” from one set of hands to another. The related noun παράδοσις (paradosis, tradition or handing down) comes from the same compound family: although Acts uses a different Greek word for “customs,” the verse places Paul’s handover beside his insistence that he has not violated what was handed down from his fathers.
ALSO GROWS
paradosis: Tradition; something handed down.
παράδοσις
This related noun makes inherited teaching linguistically echo the verse’s language of being handed over, while “customs” itself is a different Greek word.
apodidōmi: Give back, return, or render.
ἀποδίδωμι
This compound shares the root δίδωμι (didōmi, give) and shows that giving describes a transfer; it does not by itself declare the recipient guilty.
THE PATTERN
Custody can be imposed without settling the question of guilt.
And Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.THE THREAD
But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;Matthew uses the same Greek verb, παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), for being handed over to councils. The shared word describes a transfer into others’ power; the transfer itself does not establish guilt.
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