What Does Acts 7:1 Mean in the King James?
Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
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 question is whether the accusation holds as stated.
THE MEANING
A charge reaches you as a claim to be examined: do these things actually hold together? The question leaves space between hearing an accusation and accepting it, asking whether what is said stands as presented.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An accusation is not true merely because an authority voices it; the claim still has to hold under examination.
THE ROOT
οὕτως ἔχει
houtōs echei
GROWS FROM
ἐχ
Hold, have; ἔχει (echei) means “holds” or “is the case.”
“Are these things so?” in this verse is houtōs echei. The Greek phrasing asks whether the matter “thus holds,” making the accusation something whose truth must stand up. The English question preserves the challenge, while the root adds the image of a claim being held to account.
ALSO GROWS
katechō: Hold fast, retain
κατέχω
This compound carries the same root into the act of keeping hold of what proves sound.
synechō: Hold together, constrain
συνέχω
This branch can describe what presses or holds something together, echoing the question of whether the account coheres.
THE PATTERN
What is true can be examined and established, and what proves sound can be held fast.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.THE THREAD
But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.The verb translated “keep” is κατέχω (katechō, hold fast), built from the same ἐχ (ech, hold) root as “are these things so?” One passage asks whether a claim holds; the other shows a heard word held fast and bearing fruit.
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