What Does Acts 8:18 Mean in the King James?
And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
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 moment Simon sees the Set-Apart Breath being given, he treats what is received as something he can buy.
THE MEANING
You see something given through another person and may immediately imagine it as power to acquire. The verse sets two movements beside each other: the Set-Apart Breath is given, and Simon responds with money. It exposes the moment a gift is mistaken for something purchasable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what God gives can be bought and owned through a human transaction.
THE ROOT
δίδοται
didotai
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
Give, grant, bestow.
The word translated “was given” belongs to the same word-family as δωρεά (dōrea), “gift,” in Peter’s response in verse 20. That shared seed holds the scene’s contrast: the Breath arrives as a gift, while Simon tries to turn it into a purchase.
ALSO GROWS
dosis: Giving; a gift.
δόσις
This branch keeps the focus on an act of giving, not on an object Simon can buy.
dōrea: A gift freely given.
δωρεά
Peter uses this related word for God’s gift in the next verse, naming what Simon’s money cannot purchase.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
Blow, breathe.
“Holy Ghost” in this verse is pneuma. The Greek word rendered “Ghost” is pneuma, whose word-family holds breath and wind together. The Set-Apart Breath is named as living movement being given, not as a token to trade.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To blow or breathe.
πνέω
The verb keeps the breath in the noun’s meaning: what is given is living movement.
pnoē: Breath; a blast of wind.
πνοή
This related word appears in Acts 2:2 for the rushing wind, showing how the same word-family joins breath and wind.
THE PATTERN
What comes from God arrives as gift and cannot be turned into human possession through payment.
But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:THE THREAD
But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.Peter names the assumption hidden in Simon’s offer: that God’s gift can be purchased. The next verse makes explicit what this one first shows, the Breath is given, and Simon tries to turn that giving into a transaction.
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