What Does Acts 5:23 Mean in the King James?
Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.
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 prison’s walls remain secure, but they cannot prove the prisoner is still there.
THE MEANING
This verse names a condition alive now: every visible sign can say “contained” while the one assumed to be held is already absent. Opening the door reveals that an enclosure’s appearance and its actual hold are not the same thing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An intact barrier proves its captive is still inside.
THE ROOT
δεσμωτήριον
desmōtērion
GROWS FROM
δεσμ-
desm-
Bond, binding; the word names a place through the bonds it holds.
The Greek word for prison is shaped by δεσμός (desmos, bond): it names a place through the binding it houses. Yet the report finds the enclosure secured and no bound person inside, exposing the gap between the prison and its claim over someone.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: bond, chain
δεσμός
The prison’s name grows from the bond itself, making binding the center of the image.
desmios: prisoner, bound one
δέσμιος
The expected bound person is missing from the place defined by binding.
ἀσφάλεια
asphaleia
GROWS FROM
σφαλ-
sphal-
Fall, stumble; with the privative prefix ἀ- in ἀσφάλεια, the sense is security or stability, as if not falling.
“safety” in this verse is asphaleia. The guards report stability: the doors are shut and every safeguard is in place. But the word describes the security of the enclosure, not proof that anyone remains under its power.
ALSO GROWS
asphalēs: secure, stable, sure
ἀσφαλής
This is the quality the guards see in the closed prison.
sphallō: cause to fall, make stumble
σφάλλω
The contrast in the word’s formation sharpens the scene: security describes what does not fall, but it cannot establish what is still held.
ἀνοίξαντες
anoixantes
GROWS FROM
ἀνοιγ-
anoig-
Open, unclose.
Opening makes the absence visible: the door gives access to what the closed prison concealed. This verb family can also describe understanding being opened, linking an opened barrier with something newly disclosed.
ALSO GROWS
anoigō: open, unclose
ἀνοίγω
This is the verb used when the keepers open the doors and discover the empty interior.
dianoigō: open fully; explain or unfold
διανοίγω
The related verb can describe understanding being opened, so opening can expose what was hidden as well as provide passage.
THE PATTERN
Visible barriers and restraints do not have the final word over release.
When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.THE THREAD
When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.Both verses use ἀνοίγω (anoigō, open): in Acts 5, opening exposes the empty prison; here, the gate opens and Peter passes through. In both, an opened barrier makes release visible.
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