What Does Acts 3:3 Mean in the King James?
Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
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 man asks for alms, and the Greek word carries mercy inside the request: a concrete gift is compassion made tangible.
THE MEANING
Need is visible and can be spoken plainly: the man asks for a concrete gift. The Greek word for alms belongs to the family of mercy, so a material request also carries an appeal for compassion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The request is not merely a transaction for money; its own word-family joins material help to compassion.
THE ROOT
ἐλεημοσύνην
eleēmosynēn
GROWS FROM
ἐλεη-/ἐλεε-, related to ἔλεος (eleos)
Mercy or compassion expressed toward someone in need.
English “alms” can sound like a coin passed from one hand to another, but Greek keeps the word within the family of mercy. The request holds both an immediate material lack and an appeal for compassion.
ALSO GROWS
eleos: Mercy, compassion
ἔλεος
This related word makes clear that the request for alms belongs to the language of mercy.
eleeō: To show mercy
ἐλεέω
The verb turns the same word-family into an act: mercy is something extended to another.
eleēmōn: Merciful, compassionate
ἐλεήμων
This branch names the quality carried by the gift the man asks for.
THE PATTERN
Compassion becomes visible when need is met with something concrete.
But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.THE THREAD
And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.The Greek word for “alms” in Acts and the word translated “mercy” here share the same word-family. Luke shows that family in action: mercy is something done for the person in need.
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