The Meaning of Acts 4:11 Explained

Acts 4:11

KJV: This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

YLT: This is the stone that was set at nought by you -- the builders, that became head of a corner;

Darby: He is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders, which is become the corner stone.

ASV: He is the stone which was set at nought of you the builders, which was made the head of the corner.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

This  is  the stone  which  was set at nought  of  you  builders,  which  is become  the head  of  the corner. 

What does Acts 4:11 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Peter showed that this teaching did not lead the people away from God but rather fulfilled something that God had predicted. In quoting Psalm 118:22 Peter applied to Jesus Christ what David had said about the nation Israel (cf. Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17). Israel"s leaders had rejected Jesus as an unacceptable Messiah, but He would prove to be the most important part of what God was building.
Some scholars believe Peter meant that Jesus was the cornerstone, the foundation of what God was building (cf. Isaiah 28:16; 1 Peter 2:7). Others believe he meant the capstone, the final piece of what God was building (cf. Daniel 2:34-35). [1] If the former interpretation is correct, Peter was probably anticipating the church as a new creation of God (cf. 1 Peter 2:4-8). In the latter view, he was viewing the Messiah as the long-expected completion of the house of David. Since Peter was addressing Israel"s rulers, I think he probably meant that Jesus was the capstone, their Messiah. These rulers, the builders of Israel, had rejected their Messiah.

Context Summary

Acts 4:1-12 - The Name Above Every Name
The Sadducees are particularly mentioned, because they were the agnostics of the age, and had no belief in the unseen and eternal. The fact of our Lord's resurrection was, therefore, especially obnoxious to them. The captain of the Temple, who was head of the Levitical guard, was probably their nominee. How weak man shows himself when he sets himself against God! All that they could do was to shut the Apostles up; but they could not bind nor imprison the Living Spirit or the speech of one saved soul to another, and so the numbers of disciples kept mounting up.
Peter must have contrasted this with his former appearance in that hall. Then he trusted his own power; now he was specially filled with the Holy Spirit for a great and noble confession. The name of Jesus stands for His glorious being. It was because the man had come into vital union with the ever-living Christ, that disease was stayed and health restored. The name of Jesus rings through these chapters like a sweet refrain. Evidently He was living and at hand, or the streams of power and grace could not have poured forth to make desert lives begin to blossom as the garden of the Lord. [source]

Chapter Summary: Acts 4

1  The rulers of the Jews, offended with Peter's sermon,
3  imprison him and John
5  After, upon examination
8  Peter boldly avouching the lame man to be healed by the name of Jesus,
11  and that only by the same Jesus we must be eternally saved,
13  they threaten him and John to preach no more in that name,
23  whereupon the church flees to prayer
31  And God, by moving the place where they were assembled, testifies that he heard their prayer;
34  confirming the church with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and with mutual love and charity

Greek Commentary for Acts 4:11

Of you the builders [υπ υμων των οικοδομων]
The experts, the architects, had rejected Jesus for their building (Psalm 118:22) as Jesus himself had pointed out (Matthew 21:42; Luke 21:17). This very Rejected Stone God had made the head of the corner (either the highest corner stone right under the roof or the corner stone under the building, Isaiah 28:16) as Jesus showed, as Peter here declares and repeats later (1 Peter 2:6.). [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Acts 4:11

Luke 2:34 The fall and rising again [πτῶσιν καὶ ἀνάστασιν]
For the fall, because he will be a stumbling-block to many (Isaiah 8:14; Matthew 21:42, Matthew 21:44; Acts 4:11; Romans 9:33; 1 Corinthians 1:23). For the rising, because many will be raised up through him to life and glory (Romans 6:4, Romans 6:9; Ephesians 2:6). The A. V. predicates the falling and the rising of the same persons: the fall and rising again of many. The Rev., the falling and rising up of many, is ambiguous. The American Revisers give it correctly: the falling and the rising. [source]
Galatians 4:14 Ye despised not nor rejected [οὐκ ἐξουθενήσατε οὐδὲ ἐξεπτύσατε]
Commonly explained by making both verbs govern your temptation. Thus the meaning would be: “You were tempted to treat my preaching contemptuously because of my bodily infirmity; but you did not despise nor reject that which was a temptation to you.” This is extremely far fetched, awkward, and quite without parallel in Paul's writings or elsewhere. It does not suit the following but received me, etc. It lays the stress on the Galatians' resistance of a temptation to despise Paul; whereas the idea of a temptation is incidental. On this construction we should rather expect Paul to say: “Ye did despise and repudiate this temptation.” Better, make your temptation, etc., dependent on ye know (Galatians 4:13); place a colon after flesh, and make both verbs govern me in the following clause. Rend. “Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you the first time, and (ye know) your temptation which was in my flesh: ye did not despise nor reject me, but received me.” The last clause thus forms one of a series of short and detached clauses beginning with Galatians 4:10. Ὁυκ ἐξουθενήσατε yedid not set at nought, from οὐδέν nothingThe form οὐθέν occurs Luke 22:35; Luke 23:14; Acts 19:27; Acts 26:26; 1 Corinthians 13:2; 2 Corinthians 11:8. For the compound here, comp. Luke 18:9; Luke 23:11; Acts 4:11; 2 Corinthians 10:10. oClass. Ἑξεπτύσατε spurnedN.T.oLit. spat out. A strong metaphor, adding the idea of contempt to that of setting at nought. Comp. Hom. Od. v. 322; Aristoph. Wasps, 792. The two verbs express contemptuous indifference. Ἑμέσαι tovomit, as a figure of contemptuous rejection, is found in Revelation 3:16. The simple πτύειν tospit only in the literal sense in N.T. Mark 7:33; Mark 8:23; John 9:6, and no other compound occurs. [source]
1 Thessalonians 2:5 Used we flattering words [ἐν λόγῳ κολακίας ἐγενηθήμεν]
Better, were we found using flattering discourse. Very literally and baldly it is, we came to pass in discourse of flattery. It means more than the mere fact that they were not flatterers: rather, they did not prove to be such in the course of their work. Similar periphrases with ἐν are found, Luke 22:44; Acts 22:17; 2 Corinthians 3:7; Philemon 2:7; with εἰς , Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:5. Κολακία flatteryN.T.oolxx. Rare in Class. Λόγῳ is explained by some as report or rumor. Common report did not charge us with being flatterers. This meaning is admissible, but the other is simpler. Paul says that they had not descended to flattery in order to make the gospel acceptable. They had not flattered men's self-complacency so as to blind them to their need of the radical work which the gospel demands. [source]
1 Peter 2:4 A living stone [λίθον ζῶντα]
Omit as unto. So Rev. The words are in apposition with whom (Christ). Compare Peter's use of the same word, stone, in Acts 4:11, and Matthew 21:42. It is not the word which Christ uses as a personal name for Peter ( Πέτρος )so that it is not necessary to infer that Peter was thinking of his own new name. [source]
1 Peter 2:7 But for such as disbelieve [απιστουσιν δε]
Dative present active participle again of απιστεω — apisteō opposite of πιστευω — pisteuō (Luke 24:11).Was made the head of the corner (εγενητη εις κεπαλην γωνιας — egenēthē eis kephalēn gōnias). This verse is from Psalm 118:22 with evident allusion to Isaiah 28:16 (κεπαλην γωνιασακρογωνιαιον — kephalēn gōnias =οι οικοδομουντες — akrogōniaion). See Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17, where Jesus himself quotes Psalm 118:22 and applies the rejection of the stone by the builders (hoi oikodomountes the experts) to the Sanhedrin‘s conduct toward him. Peter quoted it also (and applied it as Jesus had done) in his speech at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 4:11). Here he quotes it again to the same purpose. [source]

What do the individual words in Acts 4:11 mean?

This is the stone - having been rejected by you the builders which has become into head of [the] corner
οὗτός ἐστιν λίθος ἐξουθενηθεὶς ὑφ’ ὑμῶν τῶν οἰκοδόμων γενόμενος εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας

οὗτός  This 
Parse: Demonstrative Pronoun, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: οὗτος  
Sense: this.
λίθος  stone 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: λίθος  
Sense: a stone.
  - 
Parse: Article, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
ἐξουθενηθεὶς  having  been  rejected 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Passive, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: ἐξουθενέω 
Sense: to make of no account, despise utterly.
οἰκοδόμων  builders 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Plural
Root: οἰκοδομέω 
Sense: to build a house, erect a building.
γενόμενος  has  become 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Middle, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: γίνομαι  
Sense: to become, i.
εἰς  into 
Parse: Preposition
Root: εἰς  
Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among.
κεφαλὴν  head 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: κεφαλή  
Sense: the head, both of men and often of animals.
γωνίας  of  [the]  corner 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Feminine Singular
Root: γωνία  
Sense: corner.