What Does Acts 5:36 Mean in the King James?
For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.
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 verse moves from a man claiming to be somebody to a movement becoming nothing, exposing how little a following can guarantee.
THE MEANING
This verse names a present pattern: a claim to be somebody can gather a crowd, but cannot make its bond durable. When the person at its center is gone, persuasion unravels and the whole venture can come to nothing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a large following proves a leader’s work has lasting substance falls here: four hundred can gather and still disperse once the leader is gone.
THE ROOT
οὐδέν
ouden
GROWS FROM
ἕν
hen
One; a single thing.
The word for nought carries the shape of “not one”: the verse moves from a man claiming to be somebody to the gathered work becoming not one thing. The ending does not merely say the group shrinks; it shows that its claim to lasting substance has disappeared.
ALSO GROWS
hen: One; a single thing.
ἕν
The underlying idea of one makes the ending’s “not one thing” concrete.
oudeis: No one; nobody.
οὐδείς
The negative form preserves the image of a person or thing reduced to none.
mēdeis: No one; nothing.
μηδείς
This related negative form likewise turns one into no one or nothing.
ἐπείθοντο
epeithonto
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peithō
To persuade; to win trust or confidence.
The verb translated obeyed belongs to the language of persuasion: these people are gathered through what convinces them. Its family also carries confidence and persuasion, revealing how a leader’s claim can become a bond among followers, and how that bond rests on what they have been led to trust.
ALSO GROWS
pepoithēsis: Confidence; trust.
πεποίθησις
This branch shows the confidence that persuasion can create in a follower.
peismonē: Persuasion; an appeal that convinces.
πεισμονή
This branch makes explicit the persuasive force that draws people after a leader.
διελύθησαν
dielythēsan
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
To loosen; to release or dissolve.
The verb behind scattered is built on the root meaning loosen or release, with a prefix of separation; the group’s cohesion is pictured as coming apart. The same verbal seed appears in words for release and dismissal, so the verse shows not only a crowd moving outward but its attachment being undone.
ALSO GROWS
lysis: A loosening; release.
λύσις
This noun shows the loosening contained in the verb translated scattered.
apolyō: To release; dismiss or send away.
ἀπολύω
This related verb makes the idea of a gathered group being let go especially clear.
THE PATTERN
A group fastened to one human leader can scatter when that leader is struck down or removed.
And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place.Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.THE THREAD
And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:Acts 5:38 repeats the exact ending εἰς οὐδέν (eis ouden, “into nothing”), shifting from the end of a crowd to a test for any work built by people. The repeated phrase makes the image of collapse part of the passage’s own measure of what can endure.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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