KJV: Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.
YLT: so as into the broad places to bring forth the ailing, and to lay them upon couches and mats, that at the coming of Peter, even his shadow might overshadow some one of them;
Darby: so that they brought out the sick into the streets and put them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter, when he came, might overshadow some one of them.
ASV: insomuch that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that, as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some one of them.
| ὥστε | so as |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: ὥστε Sense: so that, insomuch that. |
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| καὶ | even |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: καί Sense: and, also, even, indeed, but. |
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| εἰς | into |
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Parse: Preposition Root: εἰς Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among. |
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| πλατείας | streets |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Plural Root: πλατεῖα Sense: a broad way, a street. |
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| ἐκφέρειν | to bring out |
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Parse: Verb, Present Infinitive Active Root: ἐκφέρω Sense: to carry out, to bear forth. |
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| ἀσθενεῖς | sick |
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Parse: Adjective, Accusative Masculine Plural Root: ἀσθενής Sense: weak, infirm, feeble. |
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| τιθέναι | to put [them] |
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Parse: Verb, Present Infinitive Active Root: τίθημι Sense: to set, put, place. |
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| κλιναρίων | cots |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Neuter Plural Root: κλινίδιον Sense: a small bed, a couch. |
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| κραβάττων | mats |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: κράβαττος Sense: a pallet, camp bed (a rather simple bed holding only one person). |
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| ἵνα | that |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: ἵνα Sense: that, in order that, so that. |
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| ἐρχομένου | coming |
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Parse: Verb, Present Participle Middle or Passive, Genitive Masculine Singular Root: ἔρχομαι Sense: to come. |
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| Πέτρου | of Peter |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular Root: Πέτρος Sense: one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. |
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| κἂν | at least |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: κἄν Sense: and if. |
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| σκιὰ | shadow |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular Root: σκιά Sense: shadow. |
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| ἐπισκιάσῃ | might envelop |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: ἐπισκιάζω Sense: to throw a shadow upon, to envelop in a shadow, to overshadow. |
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| τινὶ | some |
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Parse: Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun, Dative Masculine Singular Root: τὶς Sense: a certain, a certain one. |
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| αὐτῶν | of them |
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Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural Root: αὐτός Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself. |
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Greek Commentary for Acts 5:15
With the present infinitive εκπερειν ekpherein and τιτεναι tithenai regular Greek idiom for result. [source]
Supply οδους hodous (ways), into the broad ways. On beds and couches (επι κλιναριων και κραβαττων epi klinariōn kai krabattōn). Little beds (κλιναρια klinaria diminutive of κλινη klinē) and camp beds or pallets (See note on Mark 2:4, Mark 2:9, Mark 2:11). As Peter came by Genitive absolute with present middle participle. At the least his shadow might overshadow (καν η σκια επισκιασει kan hē skia episkiasei). Future active indicative with ινα hina (common with οπως hopōs in ancient Greek) and καν kan (crasis for και εαν kai ean =even if), even if only the shadow. The word for shadow (σκια skia like our “sky”) is repeated in the verb and preserved in our “overshadow.” There was, of course, no virtue or power in Peter‘s shadow. That was faith with superstition, of course, just as similar cases in the Gospels occur (Matthew 9:20; Mark 6:56; John 9:5) and the use of Paul‘s handkerchief (Acts 19:12). God honours even superstitious faith if it is real faith in him. Few people are wholly devoid of superstition. [source]
Little beds (κλιναρια klinaria diminutive of κλινη klinē) and camp beds or pallets (See note on Mark 2:4, Mark 2:9, Mark 2:11). [source]
Genitive absolute with present middle participle. At the least his shadow might overshadow (καν η σκια επισκιασει kan hē skia episkiasei). Future active indicative with ινα hina (common with οπως hopōs in ancient Greek) and καν kan (crasis for και εαν kai ean =even if), even if only the shadow. The word for shadow (σκια skia like our “sky”) is repeated in the verb and preserved in our “overshadow.” There was, of course, no virtue or power in Peter‘s shadow. That was faith with superstition, of course, just as similar cases in the Gospels occur (Matthew 9:20; Mark 6:56; John 9:5) and the use of Paul‘s handkerchief (Acts 19:12). God honours even superstitious faith if it is real faith in him. Few people are wholly devoid of superstition. [source]
Future active indicative with ινα hina (common with οπως hopōs in ancient Greek) and καν kan (crasis for και εαν kai ean =even if), even if only the shadow. The word for shadow God honours even superstitious faith if it is real faith in him. Few people are wholly devoid of superstition. [source]
See on Mark 2:4. [source]
But the proper rendering is, as Peter passed by, his shadow might, etc. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Acts 5:15
Christ responds to Peter's emphatic thou with another, equally emphatic. Peter says, “Thou art the Christ.” Christ replies, “Thou art Peter.” Πέτρος (Peter ) is used as a proper name, but without losing its meaning as a common noun. The name was bestowed on Simon at his first interview with Jesus (John 1:42) under the form of its Aramaic equivalent, CephasIn this passage attention is called, not to the giving of the name, but to its meaning. In classical Greek the word means a piece of rock, as in Homer, of Ajax throwing a stone at Hector (“Iliadvii., 270), or of Patroclus grasping and hiding in his hand a jagged stone (“Iliadxvi., 784).On this rock ( ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέρᾳ )The word is feminine, and means a rock, as distinguished from a stone or a fragment of rock ( πέτρος , above). Used of a ledge of rocks or a rocky peak. In Homer (“Odyssey,” ix., 243), the rock ( πέτρην ) which Polyphemus places at the door of his cavern, is a mass which two-and-twenty wagons could not remove; and the rock which he hurled at the retreating ships of Ulysses, created by its fall a wave in the sea which drove the ships back toward the land (“Odyssey,” ix., 484). The word refers neither to Christ as a rock, distinguished from Simon, a stone, nor to Peter's confession, but to Peter himself, in a sense defined by his previous confession, and as enlightened by the “Father in Heaven.” The reference of πέτρα to Christ is forced and unnatural. The obvious reference of the word is to Peter. The emphatic this naturally refers to the nearest antecedent; and besides, the metaphor is thus weakened, since Christ appears here, not as the foundation, but as the architect: “On this rock will I build.” Again, Christ is the great foundation, the “chief corner-stone,” but the New Testament writers recognize no impropriety in applying to the members of Christ's church certain terms which are applied to him. For instance, Peter himself (1 Peter 2:4), calls Christ a living stone, and, in 1 Peter 2:5, addresses the church as living stones. In Revelation 21:14, the names of the twelve apostles appear in the twelve foundation-stones of the heavenly city; and in Ephesians 2:20, it is said, “Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (i.e., laid by the apostles and prophets), Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.” Equally untenable is the explanation which refers πέτρα to Simon's confession. Both the play upon the words and the natural reading of the passage are against it, and besides, it does not conform to the fact, since the church is built, not on confessions, but on confessors - living men. “The word πέτρα ,” says Edersheim, “was used in the same sense in Rabbinic language. According to the Rabbins, when God was about to build his world, he could not rear it on the generation of Enos, nor on that of the flood, who brought destruction upon the world; but when he beheld that Abraham would arise in the future, he said' 'Behold, I have found a rock to build on it, and to found the world,' whence, also, Abraham is called a rock, as it is said' 'Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn.' The parallel between Abraham and Peter might be carried even further. If, from a misunderstanding of the Lord's promise to Peter, later Christian legend represented the apostle as sitting at the gate of heaven, Jewish legend represents Abraham as sitting at the gate of Gehenna, so as to prevent all who had the seal of circumcision from falling into its abyss” (“Life and Times of Jesus”). The reference to Simon himself is confirmed by the actual relation of Peter to the early church, to the Jewish portion of which he was a foundation-stone. See Acts, Acts 1:15; Acts 2:14, Acts 2:37; Acts 3:12; Acts 4:8; Acts 5:15, Acts 5:29; Acts 9:34, Acts 9:40; Acts 10:25, Acts 10:26; Galatians 1:15.Church ( ἐκκλησίαν ) ἐκ out, καλέω , to call or summon. This is the first occurrence of this word in the New Testament. Originally an assembly of citizens, regularly summoned. So in New Testament, Acts 19:39. The Septuagint uses the word for the congregation of Israel, either as summoned for a definite purpose (Acts 7:38); but for this there is more commonly employed συναγωγή , of which synagogue is a transcription; σύν , together, ἄγω , to bring (Acts 13:43). In Christ's words to Peter the word ἐκκλησία acquires special emphasis from the opposition implied in it to the synagogue. The Christian community in the midst of Israel would be designated as ἐκκλησία , without being confounded with the συναγωγή , the Jewish community. See Acts 5:11; Acts 8:1; Acts 12:1; Acts 14:23, Acts 14:27, etc. Nevertheless συναγωγή is applied to a Christian assembly in James 2:2, while ἐπισυναγωγή (gathering or assembling together ) is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:1; Hebrews 10:25. Both in Hebrew and in New Testament usage ἐκκλησία implies more than a collective or national unity; rather a community based on a special religious idea and established in a special way. In the New Testament the term is used also in the narrower sense of a single church, or a church confined to a particular place. So of the church in the house of Aquila and Priscilla (Romans 16:5); the church at Corinth, the churches in Judea, the church at Jerusalem, etc.Gates of hell ( πύλαι ᾅδου )Rev., Hades. Hades was originally the name of the god who presided over the realm of the dead - Pluto or Dis. Hence the phrase, house of Hades. It is derived from ἀ , not, and; ἰδεῖν , to see; and signifies, therefore, the invisible land, the realm of shadow. It is the place to which all who depart this life descend, without reference to their moral character. By this word the Septuagint translated the Hebrew Sheol, which has a similar general meaning. The classical Hades embraced both good and bad men, though divided into Elysium, the abode of the virtuous, and Tartarus, the abode of the wicked. In these particulars it corresponds substantially with Sheol; both the godly and the wicked being represented as gathered into the latter. See Genesis 42:38; Psalm 9:17; Psalm 139:8; Isaiah 14:9; Isaiah 57:2; Ezekiel 32:27; Hosea 13:14. Hades and Sheol were alike conceived as a definite place, lower than the world. The passage of both good and bad into it was regarded as a descent. The Hebrew conception is that of a place of darkness; a cheerless home of a dull, joyless, shadowy life. See Psalm 6:5; Psalm 94:17; Psalm 115:17; Psalm 88:5, Psalm 88:6, Psalm 88:10; Job 10:21; Job 3:17-19; Job 14:10, Job 14:11; Ecclesiastes 9:5. Vagueness is its characteristic. In this the Hebrew's faith appears bare in contrast with that of the Greek and Roman. The pagan poets gave the popular mind definite pictures of Tartarus and Elysium; of Styx and Acheron; of happy plains where dead heroes held high discourse, and of black abysses where offenders underwent strange and ingenious tortures. There was, indeed, this difference between the Hebrew and the Pagan conceptions; that to the Pagan, Hades was the final home of its tenants, while Sheol was a temporary condition. Hence the patriarchs are described (Hebrews 11:16) as looking for a better, heavenly country; and the martyrs as enduring in hope of “a better resurrection.” Prophecy declared that the dead should arise and sing, when Sheol itself should be destroyed and its inmates brought forth, some to everlasting life, and others to shame and contempt (Isaiah 26:19; Hosea 13:14; Daniel 12:2). Paul represents this promise as made to the fathers by God, and as the hope of his countrymen (Acts 26:7). God was the God of the dead as well as of the living; present in the dark chambers of Sheol as well as in heaven (Psalm 139:8; Psalm 16:10). This is the underlying thought of that most touching and pathetic utterance of Job (Job 14:13-15), in which he breathes the wish that God would hide him with loving care in Hades, as a place of temporary concealment, where he will wait patiently, standing like a sentinel at his post, awaiting the divine voice calling him to a new and happier life. This, too, is the thought of the familiar and much-disputed passage, Job 19:23-27. His Redeemer, vindicator, avenger, shall arise after he shall have passed through the shadowy realm of Sheol. “A judgment in Hades, in which the judge will show himself his friend, in which all the tangled skein of his life will be unravelled by wise and kindly hands, and the insoluble problem of his strange and self-contradicting experience will at last be solved - this is what Job still looks for on that happy day when he shall see God for himself, and find his Goel (vindicator) in that Almighty Deliverer” (Cox, “Commentary on the Book of Job”). In the New Testament, Hades is the realm of the dead. It cannot be successfully maintained that it is, in particular, the place for sinners (so Cremer, “Biblico-Theological Lexicon”). The words about Capernaum (Matthew 11:23), which it is surprising to find Cremer citing in support of this position, are merely a rhetorical expression of a fall from the height of earthly glory to the deepest degradation, and have no more bearing upon the moral character of Hades than the words of Zophar (Job 11:7, Job 11:8) about the perfection of the Almighty. “It is high as heaven - deeper than Sheol. ” Hades is indeed coupled with Death (Revelation 1:18; Revelation 6:8; Revelation 20:13, Revelation 20:14), but the association is natural, and indeed inevitable, apart from all moral distinctions. Death would naturally be followed by Hades in any case. In Revelation 20:13, Revelation 20:14, the general judgment is predicted, and not only Death and Hades, but the sea give tip their dead, and only those who are not written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). The rich man was in Hades (Luke 16:23), and in torments, but Lazarus was also in Hades, “in Abraham's bosom.” The details of this story “evidently represent the views current at the time among the Jews. According to them, the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life were the abode of the blessed. We read that the righteous in Eden see the wicked in Gehenna and rejoice; and similarly, that the wicked in Gehenna see the righteous sitting beatified in Eden, and their souls are troubled (Edersheim, “Life and Times of Jesus”). Christ also was in Hades (Acts 2:27, Acts 2:31). Moreover, the word γέεννα , hell (see on Matthew 5:22), is specially used to denote the place of future punishment. Hades, then, in the New Testament, is a broad and general conception, with an idea of locality bound up with it. It is the condition following death, which is blessed or the contrary, according to the moral character of the dead, and is therefore divided into different realms, represented by Paradise or Abraham's bosom, and Gehenna. The expression Gates of Hades is an orientalism for the court, throne, power, and dignity of the infernal kingdom. Hades is contemplated as a mighty city, with formidable, frowning portals. Some expositors introduce also the idea of the councils of the Satanic powers, with reference to the Eastern custom of holding such deliberations in the gates of cities. Compare the expression Sublime Porte, applied to the Ottoman court. The idea of a building is maintained in both members of the comparison. The kingdom or city of Hades confronts and assaults the church which Christ will build upon the rock. See Job 38:17; Psalm 9:13; Psalm 107:18; Isaiah 38:10. [source]
They were up in cloud-land that swept round and over them. See this verb used of Mary (Luke 1:35) and of Peter‘s shadow (Acts 5:15). [source]
Luke uses four words for the beds o£ the sick: κλίνη , as Luke 5:18, the general word for a bed or couch; κράββατος , (Acts 5:15; Acts 9:33), a rude pallet (see on Mark 2:4); κλινίδιον , a small couch or litter, as here, a couch so light that a woman could lift and carry it away. Thus, in the “Lysistrata” of Aristophanes, 916, Myrrine says: “Come now, let me carry our couch” ( κλινίδιον )The fourth term, κλινάριον (Acts 5:15), cannot be accurately distinguished from the last. The last two are peculiar to Luke. [source]
A figure of a cloud coming upon her. Common in ancient Greek in the sense of obscuring and with accusative as of Peter‘s shadow in Acts 5:15. But we have seen it used of the shining bright cloud at the Transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:34). Here it is like the Shekinah glory which suggests it (Exodus 40:38) where the cloud of glory represents the presence and power of God. [source]
Used by both Mark and Luke. See on Mark 2:4, and compare Acts 5:15; Acts 9:33. [source]
Present active imperative of αρον egeirō a sort of exclamation, like our “Get up.” The first active imperative (αιρω āron of περιπατεω airō) means to pick up the pallet, and then “go on walking” (present active imperative of κραβαττον peripateō). For krabatton (pallet) see Mark 2:2-12; Mark 6:55; Acts 5:15; Acts 9:33. [source]
Latin word also, semicinctilum Only here in the N.T. Linen aprons used by servants or artisans (Martial XIV. 153). Paul did manual work at Ephesus (Acts 20:34) and so wore these aprons. Departed (ωστε apallalsethai). Present passive infinitive with hōste for actual result as in Acts 19:10. If one wonders how God could honour such superstitious faith, he should remember that there is no power in superstition or in magic, but in God. If God never honoured any faith save that entirely free from superstition, how about Christian people who are troubled over the number 13, over the moon, the rabbit‘s foot? The poor woman with an issue of blood touched the hem of Christ‘s garment and was healed (Luke 8:44-46) as others sought to do (Matthew 14:36). God condescends to meet us in our ignorance and weakness where he can reach us. Elisha had a notion that some of the power of Elijah resided in his mantle (2 Kings 2:13). Some even sought help from Peter‘s shadow (Acts 5:15). [source]
Present passive infinitive with hōste for actual result as in Acts 19:10. If one wonders how God could honour such superstitious faith, he should remember that there is no power in superstition or in magic, but in God. If God never honoured any faith save that entirely free from superstition, how about Christian people who are troubled over the number 13, over the moon, the rabbit‘s foot? The poor woman with an issue of blood touched the hem of Christ‘s garment and was healed (Luke 8:44-46) as others sought to do (Matthew 14:36). God condescends to meet us in our ignorance and weakness where he can reach us. Elisha had a notion that some of the power of Elijah resided in his mantle (2 Kings 2:13). Some even sought help from Peter‘s shadow (Acts 5:15). [source]
Old Greek name and so probably a Hellenistic Jew. He was apparently a disciple already (the saint, Acts 9:32). Luke the physician notes that he had been bed ridden for eight years. See note on Acts 5:15 for “bed” (krabattou) and Acts 8:7; Luke 5:18 for “paralyzed” (paralelumenos perfect passive participle of paraluō with ēn periphrastic past perfect passive). [source]