What Does Acts 9:41 Mean in the King James?
And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive.
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
Peter does not merely raise Tabitha; he stands her back among the people who had lost her.
THE MEANING
Restoration here is bodily and shared: Peter gives Tabitha a hand, raises her, and brings the saints and widows to see her alive. The people who mourned her now receive her among them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that restoration is only an inward or private change: Tabitha is raised bodily and presented to the people gathered around her.
THE ROOT
ἀνέστησεν
anéstēsen
GROWS FROM
στα-/στη- (sta-/stē-), ἵστημι (histēmi)
Stand; cause to stand or set in place.
“lifted her up” in this verse is anéstēsen. The Greek verb for raising Tabitha carries the root of standing. Later in this same verse, “presented” is παρέστησεν (paréstēsen), built on that same root: she is made to stand, then stood before the community. English uses different verbs where Greek lets the movement echo.
ALSO GROWS
anástasis: Resurrection; a standing up.
ἀνάστασις
The same stand-root names rising from death, making Tabitha’s raising part of a wider language of resurrection.
parístēmi: Stand beside; present.
παρίστημι
This is the verb behind “presented” later in the verse: Tabitha’s rising ends with her alive before the people who gathered.
THE PATTERN
Restored life becomes visible as the one raised is returned to the people who receive them.
Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.THE THREAD
But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.Peter’s “arise” and “lifted her up” in the next verse come from the same Greek verb family, built on the root for standing. Verse 40 gives the word spoken; verse 41 shows Tabitha standing and presented alive before her community.
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