What Does Acts 8:33 Mean in the King James?
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
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 same Greek verb carries away both his judgment and his life, making the loss of justice part of the taking of life.
THE MEANING
The verse places two removals side by side: his judgment is taken away, and his life is taken from the earth. It speaks now wherever a humiliated person is denied justice and killed; the violence remains visible in the words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that a person’s execution proves justice was done. The verse names the withholding of judgment itself as part of the harm.
THE ROOT
ἤρθη
ērthē
GROWS FROM
αἴρω
airō
To lift, raise, or take up; also to take away or remove.
“taken away / is taken” in this verse is ērthē. English gives two phrases, but both verb forms belong to αἴρω: one removes his judgment, the other carries his life from the earth. The repetition binds denied judgment to the taking of life.
ALSO GROWS
aphaireō: Take away, remove.
ἀφαιρέω
This compound keeps the removal sense of αἴρω and sharpens the verse’s language of what is taken from him.
epairō: Lift up, raise.
ἐπαίρω
This compound retains αἴρω’s sense of lifting, making visible the movement inside the verb even when its result is removal.
κρίσις
krisis
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To judge, decide, or distinguish.
The word can name judgment as a decision or the act of judging. Here that judgment is itself taken away, so the verse presents the loss of justice as part of the suffering.
ALSO GROWS
krima: A judgment or decision.
κρῖμα
It shows the decision-making sense that sits beneath the verse’s word for judgment.
kritēs: A judge.
κριτής
It brings the one who judges into the same word family as the judgment removed from the humiliated one.
ταπείνωσις
tapeinōsis
GROWS FROM
ταπειν-
tapein-
Low, brought down, or lowered.
“humiliation” in this verse is tapeinōsis. This word names a lowered condition, not only a private feeling of shame. Set beside the removal of judgment and life, it shows the person being brought low as the violence unfolds.
ALSO GROWS
tapeinos: Lowly, humble.
ταπεινός
It carries the same low condition into a description of the person.
tapeinoō: To lower or humble.
ταπεινόω
It expresses the action of bringing low that lies within humiliation.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names a life taken under unjust judgment and keeps that taking from becoming the final meaning of the story.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.THE THREAD
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.Acts says his life is taken, using αἴρω (airō); John says no one taketh it from him, using the same verb. The shared root holds both truths in view, his life is violently taken from the earth, and he lays it down, without making the violence unreal.
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