---
title: Acts 5:42
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-5-42/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-5-42.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 5:42
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 5:42

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Every day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "And every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup to teach and to declare the good news about the Christ, Jesus."
- NWT (2013 revision): "And every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus."

## JW Usage

Acts 5:42 is the Watchtower's flagship proof-text for door-to- door ministry. JWs read "from house to house" as apostolic endorsement of the canvassing model — knocking on unfamiliar doors, working territories, reporting hours. The verse is cited in field-service training and in the monthly magazine offer.

## Protestant Usage

The natural meaning of the Greek κατ' οἶκον is locative — teaching "in each house," the first-century house-church setting — not directional canvassing. Compare Acts 5:42's sustained-teaching verb διδάσκοντες, which describes extended instruction of known hearers, not brief encounters with strangers. And pair Acts 5:42 with Luke 10:7 in the NWT, where Jesus tells his disciples for this very preaching work "do not keep transferring from house to house." The Greek phrase Jesus uses there (ἐξ οἰκίας εἰς οἰκίαν) is the phrase that *actually* means house-hopping — and Jesus prohibits it. If Luke had meant that in Acts 5:42, he would have reused his Luke 10:7 phrase. He did not. The consistent picture across the house-church texts (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 2) is private-home gatherings, not neighbourhood canvassing.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders κατ' οἶκον at Acts 5:42 as "from house to house" — directional, supporting the Watchtower's door-to-door reading. But the identical Greek phrase at Acts 2:46 is rendered "in different homes" in the NWT — locative, describing where meals were taken. Same Greek words, same author (Luke), same book; two different English renderings. The directional reading at 5:42 is not forced by the Greek — it is a theological choice the same translators did not apply when the context was eating meals. Jesus's own prohibition at Luke 10:7 ("do not keep transferring from house to house" — NWT) uses the phrase that actually means house-hopping in Greek (ἐξ οἰκίας εἰς οἰκίαν), which Luke pointedly does not reuse in Acts 5:42.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Jesus Said 'Do Not Go From House to House'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/luke10-house-to-house.md) — Luke 10:7 / Acts 5:42 / Acts 20:20 [Practice]