Bible Strands
Acts 11:28
One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted through the Spirit that a great famine would sweep across the whole world. (This happened under Claudius.)
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Agabus stands among the Antioch congregation after prophets from Jerusalem have arrived, delivering a Spirit-inspired warning to the believers present.
The words — ἀναστὰς (anastas) means "having risen up," and ἐσήμανεν (esēmanen) translates literally to "he signified" or "he marked out."
The thread — The same prophet appears in Acts 21:10, and his warning directly precedes the relief collection detailed in Acts 11:29.
Why it lands — The text records Agabus predicting a worldwide famine under Claudius before the disciples organize a material response. Readers must observe that the passage presents prophecy as the catalyst for practical, proportional aid rather than as a standalone spiritual event.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Cesar.
Cross-references
- Acts 21:10 After we had been there several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
- Acts 18:2 There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them,
- 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
- Luke 2:1 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the whole empire.
- Luke 3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
- Genesis 41:30 but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will devastate the land.
- Genesis 41:38 So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, in whom the Spirit of God abides?”
- 2 Kings 8:1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed that a seven-year famine will come to the land.”
- Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.