Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Acts 16:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Charges them with unlawful customs as Jews troubling a Roman city.
Read It With
- Acts 16:16–16:24
Acts 16:21 charges them with unlawful customs as Jews troubling a Roman city; within Acts 16:16–16:24, the controlling movement is that An enslaved girl whose divination profits her owners follows the missionaries until Paul commands the spirit to leave; her owners, angered at lost income, use ethnic and civic accusations to secure beating and imprisonment.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Charges them with unlawful customs as Jews troubling a Roman city. This precise contribution belongs inside “Liberation from exploitation leads to illegal confinement” because An enslaved girl whose divination profits her owners follows the missionaries until Paul commands the spirit to leave; her owners, angered at lost income, use ethnic and civic accusations to secure beating and imprisonment.
What Remains True
Because Acts 16:21 charges them with unlawful customs as Jews troubling a Roman city, faithful witness must preserve the verse's speaker, narrated setting, people affected, and the full movement of Acts 16:16–16:24 before drawing an enduring claim.
How It Can Shape Life
- For Acts 16:21, first identify this verse role—charges them with unlawful customs as Jews troubling a Roman city; then explain the contextual meaning in Acts 16:16–16:24; preserve the proportionate truth about accountable witness; finally apply this boundary: The episode does not excuse Paul's irritation, erase the enslaved girl after the miracle, endorse exorcism over care, or justify anti-Roman or antisemitic stereotypes.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Acts 16:16–16:24 — Liberation from exploitation leads to illegal confinementSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
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 16:16–16:24, 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 16:16-16:24
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 16:16-16:24
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 16:16–16:24
Open source ↗