What Does Acts 7:47 Mean in the King James?
But Solomon built him an house.
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 house built for God is real, but the One it honors is never contained by human walls.
THE MEANING
A house gives reverence a visible place, but it does not enclose the One it honors. This line holds that tension: a dwelling is built for God, while God’s presence exceeds the dwelling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s presence cannot be possessed or contained by a structure people build.
THE ROOT
οἶκον
oikon
GROWS FROM
οἰκ- (oik-), the οἶκος word family
House, dwelling, household
English “house” suggests a single building, but the Greek word family also reaches to the people within a home and even the inhabited world. The word opens outward beyond walls, matching the surrounding claim that God is not confined to a human-made dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
oikia: House, home
οἰκία
This related word keeps the sense of a dwelling, while allowing for the home as a lived-in place rather than just a structure.
oikonomia: Household management, stewardship
οἰκονομία
The same word family extends from the house itself to the ordering and care of what belongs within it.
oikoumenē: The inhabited world
οἰκουμένη
The word family stretches from one house to the broad world people inhabit, carrying the idea of dwelling beyond the building Solomon made.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling can mark divine nearness, but it cannot contain the presence it points toward.
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?Solomon’s own words name the limit inside Acts 7:47: a house can be built for God, but cannot contain God. The structure can mark reverence without enclosing the presence it honors.
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