What Does Acts 7:38 Mean in the King James?
This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
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 utterance received at Sinai reaches you as living speech, carried forward through generations.
THE MEANING
You are included in a chain of receiving and giving: living utterances are received and passed on to you. Their life is present in the words that continue to be spoken and heard.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that scripture is only a record of speech that has gone silent; the verse calls these utterances living and says they are given to us.
THE ROOT
ζῶντα
zōnta
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
to live, to be alive
The Greek word translated “lively” means “living,” from the same word family as life and living creatures. The utterances are described as living, and the verse shows them continuing through the act of giving them to us.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: life
ζωή
Life belongs to the same word family as the living quality given to these utterances.
zōon: a living creature
ζῷον
The same root names living beings, giving “living” a vivid sense of life rather than a mere label.
λόγια
logia
GROWS FROM
λόγος
logos
word, speech, utterance
The Greek λόγια means sayings or utterances, and belongs to the same word family as λόγος, “word.” It lets you hear the oracles as speech received and given onward, alongside the life named by ζῶντα.
ALSO GROWS
logos: word, speech, message
λόγος
This word-family link connects the utterances received here with the wider language of the word.
legō: to say, to speak
λέγω
The speaking root keeps these oracles connected to words that can be heard, received, and handed on.
THE PATTERN
Living words are received and carried forward through human voices.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.THE THREAD
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.Acts calls the received utterances ζῶντα, “living”; Peter uses the same ζάω word family when he says God’s word “liveth.” Acts shows that living speech being given to us, while Peter names its enduring life.
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