What Does Acts 3:14 Mean in the King James?
But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
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 casts the crowd’s request as a favor for a murderer, while they refuse the one set apart and aligned.
THE MEANING
This verse names a reversal alive now: the set-apart one, aligned with what is right, is refused while a murderer is what the crowd asks to receive. The request is active; violence is not merely endured but preferred as the gift. That choice exposes how desire can welcome what destroys while rejecting what is whole.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wanting something makes it just: the crowd’s desire for a murderer does not turn that choice into justice.
THE ROOT
χαρισθῆναι
charisthēnai
GROWS FROM
χαριζ-
chariz-
To grant as a favor, to give freely.
The KJV’s “granted” belongs to the same word family as favor and gift: the crowd asks for the murderer to be given as a favor. The wording sharpens the reversal: they seek favor for the killer while refusing the one aligned with what is right.
ALSO GROWS
charis: favor
χάρις
This is the noun behind the granting language, so the crowd’s request carries the sense of asking a favor.
charisma: a gift given as a favor
χάρισμα
This branch makes the request sound like asking to receive a gift: here, the person the verse calls a murderer.
δίκαιον
dikaion
GROWS FROM
δικ-
dik-
Rightness, justice; alignment with what is right.
“Just” belongs to a word family that also names alignment and setting things right. The one the crowd refuses embodies that alignment; their choice is a rejection of it.
ALSO GROWS
dikaiosynē: alignment, righteousness
δικαιοσύνη
The shared root shows that “the Just” is connected to a state of being aligned with what is right.
dikaioō: to justify, to set right
δικαιόω
This verb carries the same root into the act of recognizing or setting something right, sharpening what is rejected here.
φονέα
phonea
GROWS FROM
φον-
phon-
Murder, killing.
“murderer” in this verse is phonea. The word names a person through the act of murder. Acts 7:52 uses this same root for “murderers” of the Just One, joining the refusal of the aligned one to the welcome given to a killer.
ALSO GROWS
phonos: murder
φόνος
The noun names the act that defines the person requested here.
phoneuō: to murder
φονεύω
This verb carries the same root as an action, tying the requested murderer to the violence the word names.
THE PATTERN
A crowd’s preference exposes a reversal when it refuses what is just and asks to receive what destroys.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.THE THREAD
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:“Just” in both verses comes from δικ- (dik-, alignment or rightness), while “murderer” and “murderers” share φον- (phon-, murder). Acts 7:52 places the paired roots together: the aligned one is betrayed and killed, opening the choice in Acts 3:14 further.
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