What Does Acts 5:21 Mean in the King James?
And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
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 message is already being taught in the temple while authority is still gathering to pull its messengers back into confinement.
THE MEANING
The word you hear moves you into open speech, and teaching begins before authority has finished assembling its response. The verse holds both movements together: the message is in motion while power is directed toward confinement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a powerful institution can make a message disappear simply by summoning its speakers back into custody.
THE ROOT
δεσμωτήριον
desmōtērion
GROWS FROM
δεσμ-
desm-
bond, fetter; the language of binding
The Greek word-family ties the prison to bonds, keeping the act of confinement visible inside the name of the place. The council sends for the teachers toward binding, even as their teaching is already underway.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: bond, fetter
δεσμός
The prison carries the bond within its word-family, revealing the confinement the council intends.
desmōtēs: prisoner
δεσμώτης
The same family names the person by the bonds, bringing the council’s intended outcome into view.
ἀκούσαντες
akousantes
GROWS FROM
ἀκούω (akouō), stem ἀκου- (akou-)
hear, listen
“heard” in this verse is akousantes. The next actions are entering and teaching: hearing has direction here. The word is received and immediately becomes movement and speech.
ALSO GROWS
hypakouō: obey, listen under
ὑπακούω
This related verb makes the possible movement from hearing to responsive action visible.
akoē: hearing, report
ἀκοή
The same family can name both the act of hearing and the report that is heard.
ἀποστείλαντες
aposteilantes
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω (apostellō), stem ἀποστελλ- (apostell-)
send away, dispatch
“sent” in this verse is aposteilantes. The verb marks a dispatch, while its destination shows what this sending is meant to do. Here the council sends toward confinement, so the direction of the action carries its force.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: sent messenger, apostle
ἀπόστολος
This word names a person through being sent, showing how the same family carries sending into identity.
apostolē: sending, commission
ἀποστολή
This noun names the act or commission of sending that is enacted in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A received word becomes public action while coercive power is still gathering to contain its speakers.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.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.And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.THE THREAD
This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.The same verb, ἀποστέλλω (apostellō, to send or dispatch), describes God’s sending of Moses as ruler and deliverer after the people refuse him. Its destination is clear in each verse: here the sending aims at custody; there it carries deliverance.
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