What Does Acts 5:3 Mean in the King James?
But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
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 withheld portion is not separate from the lie; it is the lie made material.
THE MEANING
Here, the hidden reserve and the public account belong to one truth: what is held back cannot be severed from what is represented. The deception is named as reaching the Set-Apart Breath, not only the person hearing the claim. The verse speaks into the present whenever what you say about a gift and what you privately retain tell different stories.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a partial gift can be presented as the whole simply because the withheld share remains privately yours.
THE ROOT
νοσφίσασθαι
nosphisastai
GROWS FROM
νοσφ-
nosph-
Apart; set aside for oneself.
“keep back” in this verse is nosphisastai. The verb carries the sense of separating something off for oneself, so the “keeping back” is more than an amount left unspoken: it is appropriation made private. Its root makes the hidden reserve part of the deception Peter names.
ALSO GROWS
nosphi: Apart; separately.
νόσφι
This adverb gives the root’s sense of separation: something is set off from the whole.
nosphizomai: To keep back or appropriate secretly.
νοσφίζομαι
This related verb appears in Titus 2:10 as “purloining,” connecting concealed retention with taking for oneself.
ψεύσασθαι
pseusasthai
GROWS FROM
ψευδ-
pseud-
Falsehood; deception.
“lie” in this verse is pseusasthai. The verse pairs the act of lying with the act of keeping back, joining the false account to the concealed portion. The shared word family also names false witness, making deception more than a mistaken statement: it is a representation that bends what is true.
ALSO GROWS
pseudomai: To lie or deceive.
ψεύδομαι
This is the verb family behind the form translated “to lie” in the verse.
pseudos: A lie; falsehood.
ψεῦδος
The noun names the false account as a thing in its own right.
pseudomartys: A false witness.
ψευδομάρτυς
This compound shows the same root at work when someone’s testimony misrepresents what happened.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ-
pneu-
To blow; to breathe.
“Holy Ghost” in this verse is pneuma. The word rendered “Ghost” belongs to the same Greek family as breath and wind, holding those senses together. The verse names the deception as directed toward the Set-Apart Breath, giving the address a living, present force.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To blow or breathe.
πνέω
This verb keeps the root’s breath-and-wind sense audible beneath the English phrase.
pnoē: Breath; a blowing.
πνοή
This related noun shows the same root naming breath directly.
THE PATTERN
A concealed portion becomes deception when it is presented under a claim that hides it.
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.THE THREAD
Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.“Keep back” in Acts and “purloining” in Titus translate the same Greek verb, νοσφίζομαι (nosphizomai, to keep back or appropriate secretly). The shared root brings the verse’s hidden act into focus: the withheld portion is treated as something privately taken aside.
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