What Does Acts 4:21 Mean in the King James?
So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done.
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 threat ends in release because the people’s recognition of the deed gives it a weight the authorities cannot simply punish away.
THE MEANING
You see authority threaten, then yield: the people’s response leaves no way to punish the men, and they are released. What has happened carries public weight because the people recognize God in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A spoken threat does not guarantee its speaker controls the outcome; authority can be constrained when a deed is publicly recognized.
THE ROOT
ἀπέλυσαν
apelysan
GROWS FROM
λύω (luō), with ἀπό (apo-)
Loosen; release or send away.
The verb translated “let them go” is built on λύω, “loosen.” It shows the men being released from the authorities’ hold, even as the threat remains audible.
ALSO GROWS
luō: To loosen or free what is held.
λύω
The root makes release a concrete loosening from restraint.
apólysis: A setting free or sending away.
ἀπόλυσις
This related form shows that “let them go” carries the sense of releasing and sending the men away.
ἐδόξαζον
edoxazon
GROWS FROM
δοκ-/δοξ- (dok-/dox-)
To think or regard; what is regarded becomes reputation, honor, and recognized weight.
The people’s response makes the deed’s weight visible: they recognize God in what has happened. “Glorified” describes that public recognition, not merely a private feeling.
ALSO GROWS
dokeō: To think or regard something as having a certain character.
δοκέω
The people’s response expresses how they regard the deed and what it reveals.
dóxa: Recognized worth or honor.
δόξα
This word family gives the people’s recognition the sense of weight that the threat cannot erase.
THE PATTERN
When people publicly recognize what is happening, their shared witness can restrain authorities from carrying out threatened force.
And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not.But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.THE THREAD
And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.The same Greek release verb appears here as an order from the magistrates. The echo makes the action in Acts 4 concrete: the men are sent out of official custody, and the wording preserves the power dynamic around that release.
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