Greek Spot 6: Acts 26:20 Repent And Turn To God

"First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their
repentance by their deeds". Acts 26:20.

This weeks entry is a little 'deeper' than most, but I hope you stay with it as we will be mining gold in the Word of God and that is always rewarding. Lets examine Acts 26:20.

The background to this verse sees Paul before King Agrippa and the Governor Festus. You should take the time to read it, perhaps from Chapter 21 as there is so much going on in an historical sense that it is better than any drama you might see presented on your television. Anyway, Paul is giving his defense and this involves his description of his activities leading up to his arrest. So we come to the verse we are examining today; Acts 26:20.

In a sense, this verse encapsulates Paul's ministry since his 'Damascus Road' encounter and is summed up in these few words "I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prover their repentance by their deeds". Many of us would do well to emulate this; to both repent and preach repentance (See our earlier entry on repentance here).

So lets dig a little deeper into this...

The word used for preached in the Greek is 'apagello" (pronounced apangello). Here it is used in the imperfect sense so it could legitimately be translated "I kept declaring", which is how it is translated in the NASB version. Next we have the word repent, which in the Koine is 'metanoeo' which means to change one's mind, feel remorseful, repent (BDAG p. 640). In this instance it is an infinitive verb, present active, so it means to repent, therefore as most translations have it "they should repent" is accurate within the context of the sentence.

Next we have turn, which is from the Greek word 'epistrepho' which means to change one's mind or course of action, for better or worse, turn, return (BDAG p. 382). I personally like the idea that perhaps (this is indeed a 'perhaps') we could use the word 'return' here since it reminds me of Paul's discussion regarding the "Ministry of Reconciliation' "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God" 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. Nevertheless, the majority of English Bibles use the word turn and I certainly agree with the translation. (the Bible In Basic English [BBE] version has it as 'being turned' which is a possibility since one resource I examined has the word as an aorist verb [Analytical Greek New Testament, UBS3, p. 460]). So we have "I preached that they should repent and turn to God".

For the sake of simplicity we will examine the last part of the sentence as a whole; this is because of the way the last part of the sentence is constructed in the Koine.

Here are just a few examples of well known translations:

• NASB: "performing deeds appropriate to repentance".
• NIV: "prove their repentance by their deeds".
• NLT: "prove they have changed by the good things they do".

This part of the sentence uses these main words. They are not used in this order in the text but for the sake of English translation I have presented them in the following manner:

• Prasso: Practice, exercise, do
• Ergon: Deeds, works
• Axios: Worthy, deserving
• Metanoia: Repentance (noun)

 So for the second part of this verse (and the part we are concentrating on here), my 'raw' translation from the Greek goes something like "repent and turn to God, practicing works worthy of repentance".

So what have learned here? Well we can agree that the major translations have got this verse right, with a shade of nuance here or there. Another thing we have learned is that this simple verse encapsulates Paul's ministry up to his meeting with Agrippa. We can also see that Paul's preaching involved a recommendation (repent and turn to God) and a required response if accepted (prove your repentance by what you do). I think this verse also raises two important questions for us;

1/ What does it mean for us?

2/ What does it mean for the people we want to reach with the Gospel?

Please leave a comment in the comments section and use the archive to the right to see our earlier entries. God bless!

Doctrine Is Not A Dirty Word

Welcome to our first post for 2012. We hope you had a happy and safe holiday season.

Have you ever had conversations about scripture with Christian brothers & sisters where at some point in the discussion someone says "well that's just a matter of doctrine"? I have. One brother I was talking to popped out this little gem to let me know that somehow the scriptures I was talking about were not that important to him since they were just 'a matter of doctrine'. I have heard from others that this is not an uncommon occurrence so I thought it worthwhile to dig into the Word of God to see what He thinks.

To gain a more thorough understanding of this weeks blog, you might like to read 1 Timothy chapter 4 for some background.

For the most part, when the New Testament mentions doctrine or teaching, it is based up the Greek word 'Didasko' which basically means 'to tell, to teach, to instruct' in a formal or informal setting (The Greek word for teacher is 'didaskalos' and the word for the activity of teaching is 'didache') [BDAG pp.240-241].

The Bible is quite clear that doctrine is important. Paul wrote to Timothy and said "Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you" (1 Timothy 4:16.). We can see from this verse just how critical proper teaching (doctrine) can be. Did you realise that your salvation and that of others depends on it? I am certain many of you reading this will realise this and you probably won't need to read further because you understand the gravity of the argument being proposed here. However, some people will argue that once someone has made a decision for Christ, they don't need to do much more, let alone be concerned with doctrine. Right? Well Paul says "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude" (Colossians 2:6-7). So receiving Christ is just the beginning. We need to continue in him, being strengthened and established, as instructed (doctrine).

So far in our brief investigation here we have been discussing biblical doctrine. Are there doctrines other than that contained in the Bible that we need to be aware of? While writing to Timothy, Paul warned of two types of unsound teaching; that of false teachers and that of spiritual entities, demonic beings. We see his warnings in the following:

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires" (2 Timothy 4:3).

"But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1)


It is clear from just the few scriptures offered here that there are both good and bad teachings. So how do we know what is Godly doctrine and what is not? By studying God's Word, which states: "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work". (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We must know what the Bible says so we know what to believe, how to live and to avoid being led astray. This is acheived with sound biblical doctrine.

A major hindrance to the understanding of God's Word today is the cult of personality. Many in the Post Modern Church have become followers of personalities, instead of Jesus and His teachings (Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me" John 14:23-24). Too often people listen to the most popular personalities and celebrities in present day "Christendom' and swallow everything they preach without being a good Berean and checking if it is so (Acts 17:10-13).

I have personally shown brothers and sisters the Biblical error of some of these people but they still follow them because they "love them". I suppose some people cannot/will not see past the 'cult of the peronality' to see the truth, even if it is plainly presented. However, this is not what God wants for us. We are not supposed to be following after these preachers and teachers and their doctrines; "As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming" (Ephesians 4:14). Also see Mark 7:7.


I hope we have covered enough here to perhaps encourage to investigate concept of doctrine a little further. On a personal note, I do not wish to give the impression here or anywhere within this blog that I 'have it all together'. I do not. I just hope I offer enough here to encourage you to dig into God's Word and to be a follower of Jesus and not of man.

To finish then, it is my contention that doctrine is not a dirty word. Without sound doctrine, how can we understand things like the trinity, who Jesus is, how to conduct ourselves, how to conduct a church service and the list goes on. We must discuss doctrine and we are duty bound to understand the doctrines of our faith. We also must understand what the doctrines of error are if we are to avoid being deceived and the only way to achieve this is to have a thorough understanding of the Scriptures.


If you have been edified by this study you can read more by using the month by month archive on the right or you can sign up for emails updates. Also, please be sure to leave a comment. God bless.