Acts 5:42
Acts 5:4242Every 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.
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.
The natural meaning of the Greek κατ' οἶκον is locative — teaching "in each house," the first-century house-church setting — not directional canvassing. Compare 's sustained-teaching verb διδάσκοντες, which describes extended instruction of known hearers, not brief encounters with strangers. And pair with 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 , he would have reused his phrase. He did not. The consistent picture across the house-church texts (; ; ; Philemon 2) is private-home gatherings, not neighbourhood canvassing.
The NWT renders κατ' οἶκον at as "from house to house" — directional, supporting the Watchtower's door-to-door reading. But the identical Greek phrase at 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 ("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 .