Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Acts 13:26 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 26. 26Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Addresses Abrahamic kin and God-fearers as recipients of the salvation word.
Read It With
- Acts 13:26–13:41
Acts 13:26 addresses Abrahamic kin and God-fearers as recipients of the salvation word; within Acts 13:26–13:41, the controlling movement is that Paul identifies his audience as heirs of the salvation word, narrates Jerusalem's rejection and Pilate's role, cites resurrection witnesses and Psalms, and proclaims forgiveness and justification with a prophetic warning.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Addresses Abrahamic kin and God-fearers as recipients of the salvation word. This precise contribution belongs inside “Paul announces forgiveness through the raised Jesus” because Paul identifies his audience as heirs of the salvation word, narrates Jerusalem's rejection and Pilate's role, cites resurrection witnesses and Psalms, and proclaims forgiveness and justification with a prophetic warning.
Follow the Context
- Paul identifies his audience as heirs of the salvation word, narrates Jerusalem's rejection and Pilate's role, cites resurrection witnesses and Psalms, and proclaims forgiveness and justification with a prophetic warning.
- The unit distinguishes narrated event, participant speech, the narrator's framing, material uncertainty, and the ethical boundary: The message does not authorize antisemitism, supersessionism, coercion, or the claim that Moses and Torah were worthless.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
The message does not authorize antisemitism, supersessionism, coercion, or the claim that Moses and Torah were worthless.
What Remains True
Because Acts 13:26 addresses Abrahamic kin and God-fearers as recipients of the salvation word, faithful witness must preserve the verse's speaker, narrated setting, people affected, and the full movement of Acts 13:26–13:41 before drawing an enduring claim.
How It Can Shape Life
- For Acts 13:26, first identify this verse role—addresses Abrahamic kin and God-fearers as recipients of the salvation word; then explain the contextual meaning in Acts 13:26–13:41; preserve the proportionate truth about accountable witness; finally apply this boundary: The message does not authorize antisemitism, supersessionism, coercion, or the claim that Moses and Torah were worthless.
Teach It Back
Explain Acts 13:26's precise role in Acts 13:26–13:41. Distinguish narrator and speaker, include the first Jewish, Gentile, household, disabled, enslaved, imprisoned, or Roman horizon as relevant, disclose the material uncertainty, and name one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Acts 13:26–13:41 — Paul announces forgiveness through the raised JesusSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The speech is intra-Jewish proclamation that names particular Jerusalem actors and Roman execution; the law comparison is debated and cannot be expanded into contempt for Torah or Jews.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and unit coverage.
Exact location: Acts 13:26–13:41, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control, without pretending one edition is a complete apparatus.
Exact location: SBLGNT official text, Acts 13:26-13:41
Open the Acts Greek text file ↗Lexical and grammatical evidence
STEP Bible Data
Tyndale House Cambridge
Tyndale House Cambridge, repository snapshot verified 2026
Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for words explicitly discussed in this unit.
Exact location: STEP Bible Data, TAGNT rows for Acts 13:26-13:41
Open source ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Acts
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, geography, chronology, and historical notes actually printed for the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Acts PDF, printed pp. 2104-2205, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 13:26–13:41
Open source ↗open university bible study course
Acts of the Apostles Course and Study Guides
Yale Divinity School faculty
Yale Bible Study, 2019
Supports: Introductory critical orientation to the unit's place in Luke-Acts, with contested judgments retained as interpretations.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study Acts course, course unit 'Holding the Church Together,' Acts 13-15 study guide
Open source ↗open confessional commentary
The Acts of the Apostles
Alan J. Thompson
The Gospel Coalition, 2023
Supports: One complete confessional commentary reading, independently checked against the text and critical controls.
Exact location: Thompson, online Acts commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Acts 13:26–13:41
Open source ↗peer reviewed article abstract and metadata
The Jewishness of Luke-Acts: How Recent Scholarship Has Challenged the View that Luke-Acts Is Pro-Gentile and Anti-Jewish
Joshua Paul Smith
The Journal of Theological Studies 72.2, 2021
Supports: Abstract-supported control for Jewish continuity and Gentile inclusion in Acts 13:26–13:41, not a settlement of every conflict scene.
Exact location: Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), pp. 738-765, official abstract and bibliographic record
Open source ↗