Verse Lens · Context pointer
Acts 21:38 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 38. 38Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
Distinguishes Paul from the Egyptian insurgent who led four thousand into the wilderness.
Read It With
- Acts 21:37–21:40
Acts 21:38 distinguishes Paul from the Egyptian insurgent who led four thousand into the wilderness; within Acts 21:37–21:40, the controlling movement is that Paul surprises the commander by speaking Greek, is distinguished from an Egyptian insurgent, identifies himself as a Jew from Tarsus, and receives permission to speak in Hebrew or Aramaic.
Why It Needs Context
Distinguishes Paul from the Egyptian insurgent who led four thousand into the wilderness. Its responsible force depends on the full sequence, speaker, narrator framing, and outcome of Acts 21:37–21:40; it is connective evidence rather than a complete standalone teaching.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Acts 21:37–21:40 — Paul negotiates permission to address the crowdSources used for this context pointer
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 21:37–21:40, 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 21:37-21:40
Open the Acts Greek text file ↗