What Does Acts 7:4 Mean in the King James?
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldæans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
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 word behind “removed” belongs to the same Greek house-family as “dwelt,” so the verse describes one dwelling giving way to another.
THE MEANING
God carries the movement beyond its first departure, through an interim dwelling, and into another land. Your present ground can be the destination of a path begun elsewhere.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A pause does not prove the movement has failed: a place can be a real dwelling and still be a passage to another one.
THE ROOT
μετῴκισεν
metōikisen
GROWS FROM
οἰκ-
oik-
House, dwelling; in this verb, a change of residence.
The verb translated “removed” belongs to the οἰκ- (oik-, house/dwelling) family, as do the forms translated “dwelt” and “dwell” in this verse. The movement is voiced as a change of habitation: Harran is a dwelling, and the destination is another.
ALSO GROWS
oikos: House, household
οἶκος
This is the house-word at the center of the family behind the verse’s movement between dwellings.
katoikeō: Settle, dwell
κατοικέω
This is the verb translated “dwelt” in Harran and “dwell” in the land, sharing the οἰκ- (oik-, house/dwelling) stem with “removed.”
oikeō: Inhabit, dwell
οἰκέω
This related verb makes the shared idea of habitation visible beneath the verse’s distinct English words.
THE PATTERN
God’s movement takes shape through departure, an interim dwelling, and arrival in a place to inhabit.
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: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.And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.THE THREAD
And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.The command in Acts 7:3 and the departure in 7:4 use the same Greek verb, ἐξέρχομαι (exerchomai, come or go out). The command becomes the first movement in a path that continues through an interim dwelling and into another land.
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