What Does Acts 3:15 Mean in the King James?
And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
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 one humans kill is named as life’s pioneer, and God’s raising makes that apparent contradiction the heart of the witness.
THE MEANING
This verse holds two truths together: violence really kills, and God raises the one named as life’s leader. Death before your eyes is real, but it does not prove that life has lost its source or its future; the witnesses keep that reversal visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that violence gets the final word on life.
THE ROOT
ἀρχηγόν
archēgon
GROWS FROM
ἀρχή + ἄγω (Greek compound)
Beginning or first place joined with leading or bringing; a founder, pioneer, or leader.
“Prince” carries more than rank: it names the one who goes first and leads. Calling him the Prince of life places life under its pioneer and leader, even as the verse says he is killed and raised.
ALSO GROWS
archē: Beginning, first place, or rule.
ἀρχή
The beginning element gives the title its sense of origination and precedence, reaching beyond a prince’s status toward life’s source.
agō: Lead or bring.
ἄγω
The leading element opens the title toward movement: the Prince leads through the death named here, and God raises him.
ζωή
zōē
GROWS FROM
ζω- (from ζάω, zaō)
Living; life as something lived and present.
“Life” is not only an abstract possession in this phrase: it is joined to a leader who is himself killed and raised. The verse holds life and death together without treating death as the final meaning of life.
ALSO GROWS
zaō: Live, be alive.
ζάω
The related verb brings “life” close to the state of being alive, the very reality death appears to interrupt.
zōopoieō: Make alive, give life.
ζωοποιέω
This related compound makes the verse’s movement visible: the God who raises the dead is the one who makes alive.
THE PATTERN
The death humans inflict does not hold final authority where God raises life.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.THE THREAD
For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.“Captain” translates the same Greek word, ἀρχηγός (archēgos), rendered “Prince” here. The title names the one who goes first and leads; Hebrews connects that passage through suffering with bringing many into glory.
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