Passage

Acts 2.27

"Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay." (Acts 2:27, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"25. For David saith concerning him, I beheld the Lord always before my face; For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; Moreover my flesh also shall dwell in hope:"

"27. Because thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades, Neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption."

"28. Thou madest known unto me the ways of life; Thou shalt make me full of gladness with thy countenance. 29. Brethren, I may say unto you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us unto this day." (Acts 2:25-29, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"25. For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before my face, For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. 26. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope;"

"27. because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay."

"28. You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 29. “Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day." (Acts 2:25-29, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"25. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:"

"27. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."

"28. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. 29. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. ^{let me: or, I may}" (Acts 2:25-29, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"25. for David saith in regard to him: I foresaw the Lord always before me, because He is on my right hand, that I may not be moved; 26. because of this was my heart cheered, and my tongue was glad, and yet, my flesh also shall rest on hope,"

"27. because Thou wilt not leave my soul to hades, nor wilt Thou give Thy Kind One to see corruption;"

"28. Thou didst make known to me ways of life, Thou shalt fill me with joy with Thy countenance. 29. 'Men, brethren! it is permitted to speak with freedom unto you concerning the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is among us unto this day;" (Acts 2:25-29, YLT)

Synthesis

Acts 2:27 is Peter the Apostle's Pentecost-sermon citation of Psalms 16.10 (LXX), turned into a proof of the resurrection of Jesus. Peter's argument is exegetical and historical at once: David wrote this psalm, but David died and his tomb is right here in Jerusalem (Acts 2:29), therefore David cannot have been speaking about himself. The Spirit-inspired words must refer to David's promised seed, whom God raised so that He saw no decay. Acts 2:27 is therefore not just a verse about Christ's resurrection; it is the first recorded apostolic argument for the resurrection, delivered fifty days after the event itself, in the city where the body either was or was not in the tomb.

Setting

Speaker: Peter, preaching to the Pentecost crowd
Audience: Jews and proselytes from across the diaspora, gathered in Jerusalem for the festival
Location: Jerusalem, on or near the Temple precincts
Time period: Pentecost, c. AD 30-33 (fifty days after Jesus' resurrection)

Theological reading

The Greek Hadēs (LXX rendering of Hebrew Sheol) here means the realm of the dead generally, not the place of conscious torment that "hell" in the KJV suggests to modern readers. The point is not that Jesus' soul went into and came out of a place of suffering; it is that His body was not abandoned to the grave to decompose, and His person was not abandoned to the realm of death. The two clauses are a Hebrew parallelism: my soul / Your Holy One; not abandoned to Hades / will not see decay. They name the same reality from two sides, God will not leave His Messiah in death.

Peter's exegetical move is theologically dense. By insisting David cannot have spoken this of himself (because David's body did decay), Peter reads Psalm 16 as messianic prophecy. This grounds the Christian resurrection claim in OT precedent and grounds it historically: the early Jerusalem church preached this within walking distance of the tomb. The verse is therefore a foundational text for Minimal Facts Argument and the case for Resurrection of Jesus. Paul the Apostle makes the identical argument from Psalm 16:10 in Acts 13.35, showing that the apostolic preaching had a settled exegetical-resurrection pattern.

The verse also factors into the doctrine of the intermediate state and the meaning of Hell and Eternal Punishment. Because Hadēs here is not Gehenna (G1067), the verse does not teach that Jesus went to hell to suffer, it teaches that the Messiah's body was not surrendered to decay and His person was not surrendered to the dominion of death.

Key words

G0086 - hades, hadēs, the realm of the dead; the LXX rendering of Hebrew Sheol. Not Gehenna.
G1067 - geenna, geenna, the place of final punishment; distinguished from hadēs in NT usage.
G5590 - psyche, psychē, soul, life; here standing for the whole person facing death.
H7585 - sheol, sheol, the OT background term Peter is interpreting through the LXX.

Theological themes

Bodily resurrection. The "see decay" half of the parallelism centers on the body; the resurrection is bodily, not merely spiritual survival.
Messianic prophecy. Psalm 16 cannot be exclusively about David, who died and decayed; therefore the Spirit-inspired text points to David's risen Son.
Apostolic preaching pattern. Peter at Pentecost and Paul at Antioch (Acts 13:35) both ground the resurrection in Ps 16:10; this is the settled apostolic argument.
Hadēs vs Gehenna. The verse names the realm of the dead, not the place of final punishment; relevant to debates over the descent and intermediate-state doctrine.

Cross-references

Psalms 16.10, the LXX text Peter quotes; the OT source.
Acts 13.35, Paul makes the same argument from the same verse at Pisidian Antioch.
Acts 2 (Pentecost sermon as a whole), Peter's full speech context.
Romans 1.4, declared the Son of God in power by the resurrection.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.