What Does Acts 4:20 Mean in the King James?
For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
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 says, “we are not able not to speak”: what is directly seen and heard becomes impossible to keep contained.
THE MEANING
What you have truly perceived and heard presses toward expression. The verse presents speech as the unforced consequence of encounter: what reaches you deeply does not remain borrowed information.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another person’s demand for silence can erase what you have directly seen and heard.
THE ROOT
δυνάμεθα
dynametha from dynamai
GROWS FROM
δύνα-
dyna-
To be able, to have capacity.
“cannot” in this verse is dynametha from dynamai. The phrase means “we are not able not to speak.” The wording presents their speech as an inability to hold back what they have encountered, rather than a performance they have chosen to stage.
ALSO GROWS
dynamis: Power, capacity.
δύναμις
The same word family names the capacity that is absent here: they cannot keep the testimony contained.
dynatos: Able, possible, powerful.
δυνατός
This branch keeps the focus on what can or cannot be done; silence has become impossible for them.
εἴδομεν
eidomen
GROWS FROM
εἴδω (eidō; εἰδ-)
To see or perceive; its perfect form οἶδα carries the sense “know.”
“seen” in this verse is eidomen. The word for seeing belongs to a family that also expresses knowing. Sight here is not a distant impression: what they have perceived has become something they know firsthand.
ALSO GROWS
eidos: Form, appearance; what is seen.
εἶδος
This branch makes perception concrete: the testimony concerns what came into view.
oida: Know, perceive.
οἶδα
The family’s movement from seeing to knowing illuminates why their words carry certainty.
ἠκούσαμεν
ēkousamen
GROWS FROM
ἀκούω (akouō; ἀκου-)
To hear or listen.
Hearing stands beside seeing as a direct source of their testimony. The same Greek word family can name both hearing and the report that is heard, linking reception with what can be passed on.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing; a report or message.
ἀκοή
What is heard can become a report carried onward, as their testimony does here.
akoustos: Audible, heard.
ἀκουστός
This branch keeps the sound of the message in view: their speech carries what first reached their ears.
THE PATTERN
What is encountered deeply presses toward expression, even when silence is demanded.
Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.Both verses pair seeing with hearing before speech moves outward. They share the Greek root ἀκούω (akouō, “hear”): Acts says the witness cannot be withheld, while this verse shows what has been received being declared to others.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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