What Does Acts 7:57 Mean in the King James?

Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

Acts 7:57 · 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 crowd makes refusal audible and physical at once: it cries loudly, shuts its ears, and moves against the speaker as one.

THE MEANING

A voice confronts the crowd, and refusal becomes active: the crowd raises its own sound, shuts its ears, then moves together against the speaker. Its agreement is a shared passion, not proof that anyone has listened.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A crowd’s agreement means the truth has been heard and weighed.

THE ROOT

συνέσχον

syneschon from synechō

GROWS FROM

⁨ἔχω⁩ (echō), joined with ⁨σύν⁩ (syn-)

To have or hold; with syn-, to hold together or press.

The verb describes an active holding of the ears shut. English “stopped” can sound like a simple result; the Greek keeps the act of holding in view as the crowd closes itself to the voice.

ALSO GROWS

katechō: Hold fast, retain

κατέχω

The same ⁨ἔχω⁩ seed appears with kata-, showing how a compound can make holding an act of keeping or retaining.

apechō: Hold off, keep away

ἀπέχω

With apo-, the same holding idea turns toward distance; the shared seed stays visible even as the prefix changes its direction.

THE PATTERN

When a group shuts out a voice, shared refusal can harden into coordinated harm.

But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

Zechariah 7:11 · KJVRefusal is shown as a deliberate bodily closing against what is being said.

Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.

Matthew 27:22 · KJVA crowd answers together with a demand for violence against the one before them.

Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.

John 11:53 · KJVA shared decision turns opposition into a coordinated plan to kill.

THE THREAD

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

Acts 1:14 · KJV

The same Greek adverb, ⁨ὁμοθυμαδόν⁩ (homothymadon), means “with one passion” in both verses. Here it describes people united in prayer; in Acts 7:57, the same shared drive carries a crowd toward violence.

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