What Does Acts 5:38 Mean in the King James?
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:
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 command to stand back rests on a hidden test: work from a human source will be loosened apart.
THE MEANING
The command speaks to you as a call to step back and leave the people alone; the question is where their counsel and work come from. If they arise from human beings, the verse says, they will be dismantled. Their staying power is disclosed by their source, not secured by someone else’s grip.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that you must personally crush a human work for it to fail; the verse says what originates in human beings carries its own undoing.
THE ROOT
καταλυθήσεται
katalythēsetai
GROWS FROM
λύω
luō
To loosen or release; by extension, to undo or dissolve.
The word translated “come to nought” carries the image of something being loosened apart. The verse pictures human-origin work as unable to hold its form, rather than as something that must be defeated by greater force.
ALSO GROWS
apolyō: Release, dismiss, or send away.
ἀπολύω
This branch shows the same loosening root in the act of releasing someone; the verse’s call to leave the people alone echoes that motion.
eklyō: Loosen, dissolve, or become faint.
ἐκλύω
The sense of loosening helps uncover the image beneath a work coming apart.
lysis: A loosening, release, or dissolution.
λύσις
This noun makes explicit the process implied by the work being brought to nothing.
ἀπόστητε
apostēte
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand, cause to stand, or set in place.
“Refrain” carries the image of standing away. Beside the work that will be loosened apart, the verse presents restraint as stepping back while the outcome reveals itself.
ALSO GROWS
histēmi: Stand or set in place.
ἵστημι
This is the core stand-image inside the command to withdraw.
aphistēmi: Stand away, withdraw, or depart.
ἀφίστημι
The command comes from this compound, making its spatial sense plain: take distance from these men.
stasis: A standing, position, or faction.
στάσις
This branch keeps the question of where people stand in view as the verse contrasts stepping back with work that may not stand.
THE PATTERN
A work’s source determines its endurance; human effort cannot make lasting what is not rooted in God.
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.THE THREAD
But if it be of God, ye can not overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.The next verse uses the same Greek verb, καταλύω (katalyō), meaning “dismantle”: human-origin work will be dismantled, but work from God cannot be. The repeated verb completes the test from the other side: the source determines what can be undone.
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