What Does Acts 7:16 Mean in the King James?
And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
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
“Carried over” and “laid” share the Greek root meaning “to place,” making burial one movement from transfer to belonging.
THE MEANING
The line holds a body in two movements: it is carried across, then laid in a named grave. Kinship, purchase, and place remain attached to the dead, so the body is not presented as anonymous matter. Its wording leaves a seam beside Genesis: Shechem’s purchase names Jacob, while Abraham’s burial purchase names Machpelah.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that burial makes the dead anonymous: the grave remains attached to names, kin, and a place carried through generations.
THE ROOT
μετετέθησαν
metetethēsan
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
put, set, place
“carried over / laid” in this verse is metetethēsan. The KJV gives two English actions, but both Greek verbs grow from the same root meaning “to place.” First the remains are transferred; then they are placed in the tomb, the wording makes passage and arrival one continuous movement.
ALSO GROWS
metatithēmi: transfer, move from one place to another
μετατίθημι
This compound is the verb translated “carried over,” with the root for placing joined to a sense of movement across.
tithēmi: put, set, place
τίθημι
This same verb base appears in “laid,” so the transfer ends in an act of placement.
μνήματι
mnēmati
GROWS FROM
μνήμη
mnēmē
memory, remembrance
“sepulchre” in this verse is mnēmati. The Greek word for the grave belongs to a family of words for memory and remembering. The burial place is therefore more than a location: it carries the dead within the community’s remembrance.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmeion: memorial, tomb
μνημεῖον
This related noun names a tomb as a place that marks and recalls the dead.
mimnēskomai: remember, call to mind
μιμνῄσκομαι
The same word family links the grave to the continuing act of remembering.
THE PATTERN
A named burial ground keeps the dead joined to family memory and inheritance.
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.THE THREAD
And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for an hundred pieces of money.Genesis 33:19 gives the Shechem purchase language echoed in Acts: a parcel of land bought from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father. It names Jacob as the buyer, while Genesis places Abraham’s burial purchase at Machpelah; read together, the verses reveal a seam where burial and ground are joined across two family memories.
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