Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Acts 13:42 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 42. 42And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Records Gentile hearers asking for the message the next Sabbath.
Read It With
- Acts 13:42–13:52
Read Acts 13:42 with 13:42–13:52. In isolation, this contribution—records Gentile hearers asking for the message the next Sabbath—can be mistaken for the scene's whole claim, detached from its speaker or narrator, or separated from its outcome. The complete unit establishes: Many initially seek further teaching; the next Sabbath a crowd gathers, some Jewish leaders oppose Paul, Paul and Barnabas invoke Isaiah and turn to Gentiles, and persecution drives them onward while disciples rejoice.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Records Gentile hearers asking for the message the next Sabbath. This precise contribution belongs inside “Mixed response brings a turn toward Gentiles” because Many initially seek further teaching; the next Sabbath a crowd gathers, some Jewish leaders oppose Paul, Paul and Barnabas invoke Isaiah and turn to Gentiles, and persecution drives them onward while disciples rejoice.
Follow the Context
- Many initially seek further teaching; the next Sabbath a crowd gathers, some Jewish leaders oppose Paul, Paul and Barnabas invoke Isaiah and turn to Gentiles, and persecution drives them onward while disciples rejoice.
- The unit distinguishes narrated event, participant speech, the narrator's framing, material uncertainty, and the ethical boundary: The conflict does not authorize antisemitism, announce the end of Jewish mission, celebrate expulsion, or equate growth with moral superiority.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not detach its specific contribution—records Gentile hearers asking for the message the next Sabbath—from Acts 13:42–13:52 or negate the unit's explicit boundary: The conflict does not authorize antisemitism, announce the end of Jewish mission, celebrate expulsion, or equate growth with moral superiority.
What Remains True
Acts 13:42's particular contribution—records Gentile hearers asking for the message the next Sabbath—shows that faithful witness remains accountable to the verse's speaker, narrated setting, affected people, and the complete movement of Acts 13:42–13:52.
How It Can Shape Life
- Practice Acts 13:42's particular contribution—records Gentile hearers asking for the message the next Sabbath—through this passage-controlled response: Welcome eager hearers and widen witness after rejection without turning a local conflict into a permanent judgment on Jewish people.
Teach It Back
Explain Acts 13:42's precise role in Acts 13:42–13:52. 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 13:42–13:52 — Mixed response brings a turn toward GentilesSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Jealousy language concerns named opponents, while Jews and proselytes also believe; the turn is local and strategic, since Paul continues synagogue witness throughout Acts.
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 13:42–13:52, 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 13:42-13:52
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 13:42-13:52
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 13:42–13:52
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 13:42–13:52
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 13:42–13:52, not a settlement of every conflict scene.
Exact location: Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), pp. 738-765, official abstract and bibliographic record
Open source ↗