Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Acts 21:39 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 39. 39But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Identifies Paul as a Jewish citizen of Tarsus and asks to address the people.
Read It With
- Acts 21:37–21:40
Acts 21:39 identifies Paul as a Jewish citizen of Tarsus and asks to address the people; 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 This Verse Appears Here
Identifies Paul as a Jewish citizen of Tarsus and asks to address the people. This precise contribution belongs inside “Paul negotiates permission to address the crowd” because 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.
What Remains True
Because Acts 21:39 identifies Paul as a Jewish citizen of Tarsus and asks to address the people, faithful witness must preserve the verse's speaker, narrated setting, people affected, and the full movement of Acts 21:37–21:40 before drawing an enduring claim.
How It Can Shape Life
- For Acts 21:39, first identify this verse role—identifies Paul as a Jewish citizen of Tarsus and asks to address the people; then explain the contextual meaning in Acts 21:37–21:40; preserve the proportionate truth about accountable witness; finally apply this boundary: The exchange does not make education a measure of worth, validate ethnic profiling, or turn Paul's citizenship and language access into universal protections.
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 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 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 ↗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 21:37-21:40
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 21:37–21:40
Open source ↗