What Does Acts 28:25 Mean in the King James?
And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers,
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
A single word exposes the fracture: agreement is a shared sound, and when that sound fails, the listeners part.
THE MEANING
A spoken word can bring a division into view: the hearers cannot find a shared voice, so they leave. The Set-Apart Breath speaks through Isaiah, and the word remains one even as its hearers separate.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that truth is proved by unanimous agreement: a word can be spoken well while its hearers split.
THE ROOT
ἀσύμφωνοι
asýmphōnoi
GROWS FROM
σύμφωνος
sýmphōnos
Shared sound; voices in accord.
“agreed not among themselves” in this verse is asýmphōnoi. English “agreed” can sound like a decision or opinion, but this word pictures people who are not sounding as one. The room loses its shared voice before it loses its shared space.
ALSO GROWS
phōnē: voice, sound
φωνή
Agreement is pictured as voices sounding together, so disagreement is a failure to share a sound.
symphōneō: to agree, sound together
συμφωνέω
This is the positive form of the same word family: Acts names the absence of accord.
symphōnia: music, harmony
συμφωνία
The word family also names harmony, making the contrast between shared sound and discord audible.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
To breathe or blow.
“Holy Ghost” in this verse is pneuma. The word translated “Ghost” is also the word for breath and wind: here, the Set-Apart Breath speaks through Isaiah. Greek keeps those senses in one word where English can separate them.
ALSO GROWS
pnoē: breath
πνοή
This related word names breath directly, making the shared root’s physical sense clear.
pneuma: breath, wind, spirit
πνεῦμα
The same word can name breath, wind, or spirit; here it is the Breath speaking through the prophet.
THE PATTERN
A shared word makes accord visible, while its absence exposes division.
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.THE THREAD
Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.The word translated “agree” is the positive form of the same sound-together word whose negated form describes the people in Acts. Acts shows the listeners parting when their voices will not harmonize; Matthew shows agreement as voices meeting in one request.
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