What Does Acts 7:3 Mean in the King James?

And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.

Acts 7:3 · KJV

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 call loosens the land that locates you and the lineage that shaped you before the next place is fully shown.

THE MEANING

Your familiar land and kinship are not the full boundary of your life. The direction ahead is real even while its contours are still being shown; the whole destination is not already in your hands.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that your birthplace and inherited relationships must determine the limits of your future.

THE ROOT

συγγένεια

syngeneia

GROWS FROM

γεν-

gen-

to come into being; birth, generation, origin

The Greek word for kindred connects relationship with shared birth and origin. Beside the word for country, it shows the call reaching both the place that locates you and the lineage through which you come into the world.

ALSO GROWS

genos: kind, stock, lineage

γένος

This branch names people joined by common origin, showing the birth-root inside the word translated “kindred.”

genesis: birth, origin, coming into being

γένεσις

This branch brings the word back to beginnings: kindred is tied to where and through whom life begins.

δείξω

deixō

GROWS FROM

δεικ-

deik-

to point out, show, make visible

“shew” in this verse is deixō. The land is described as what will be pointed out and made visible. Its direction unfolds through disclosure; it is not presented as a destination already fully mapped.

ALSO GROWS

deiknyō: to show, point out

δεικνύω

This is the base verb behind “I shall shew,” so the promised land is something brought into view.

apodeixis: demonstration, proof

ἀπόδειξις

This related form carries the sense of making something evident, adding depth to the promise of a destination that will be shown.

THE PATTERN

A wider path opens when inherited place and belonging no longer set the boundary of where life can go.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Genesis 12:1 · KJVThe call names both country and kinship as boundaries Abram leaves before the destination is shown.

And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

Ruth 1:16 · KJVRuth leaves her own people and takes up a new belonging, with the next place unfolding through the person she follows.

And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.

Mark 1:20 · KJVThe call moves the sons beyond the family and work that have framed their lives toward a path they follow.

THE THREAD

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Hebrews 11:8 · KJV

Hebrews uses the same Greek verb, ⁨ἐξέρχομαι⁩ (exerchomai, to go out), for Abraham’s departure, then names what this verse leaves implicit: he moves without knowing the destination. Hebrews frames that movement as trust, showing the “I shall shew thee” land as something disclosed along the way.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us