What Does Acts 7:23 Mean in the King James?
And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
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’s “visit” is attentive seeing: the heart’s concern comes close enough to look upon its kin.
THE MEANING
As a span of time fills out, an inward movement rises in you and turns toward your kin. The heart’s concern takes the concrete shape of coming to see those it recognizes as family.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that a thought in the heart is only private: here, what rises within becomes a visit to another.
THE ROOT
ἐπισκέψασθαι
episképsasthai
GROWS FROM
σκεπ-/σκοπ- (skep-/skop-)
Look toward, observe, attend to.
The verb translated “visit” carries the sense of looking upon someone with attention. The visit is more than arriving at a place: it is drawing near to see and attend to the people there.
ALSO GROWS
epískopos: Overseer; one who watches over.
ἐπίσκοπος
The same word-family links attentive looking with taking oversight of others.
episkopē: Oversight; visitation.
ἐπισκοπή
This branch shows visitation as an act of attention directed toward someone.
ἐπληροῦτο
eplērounto
GROWS FROM
πληρ-
plēr-
Fill, complete.
“full” in this verse is eplērounto. The Greek describes the time being fulfilled for him: the years have reached their fullness. At that point, what rises in his heart is directed toward his brethren.
ALSO GROWS
plērēs: Full, complete.
πλήρης
This adjective shares the idea of reaching fullness expressed by the time in the verse.
plērōma: Fullness; that which fills.
πλήρωμα
This noun echoes the verse’s image of a span of time coming to its full measure.
THE PATTERN
Visitation becomes attention in action: it comes near to see, tend, or bring someone out.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.James uses the same verb translated “visit” here, with its sense of attending to someone. In Acts, the heart turns toward the brethren; in James, that attentive movement is present with people in affliction.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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