ὅραμα

G3705, hórama, is a Greek neuter noun for something seen, a sight, appearance, or vision. Matthew uses it for what the disciples saw at Jesus' transfiguration. Acts uses it for Moses' sight at the burning bush, for visions received by Ananias, Saul, Cornelius, Peter, and Paul, and for what Peter mistakenly thinks he is seeing during his actual release from prison. The noun therefore identifies a perceived sight within a narrated event; it does not by itself tell readers whether the experience is symbolic, predictive, ordinary, mistaken, or divinely given. The inspired narrator supplies that judgment.

Acts repeatedly joins vision to interpretation and embodied obedience. Cornelius receives a clear vision and sends for Peter. Peter puzzles over his vision, reflects on it, hears the Spirit's instruction, meets the visitors, enters a Gentile home, explains what God has shown him, and later recounts the event to the Jerusalem believers. Paul sees the Macedonian man, but the missionary group concludes together that God has called them and then prepares to travel. Vision does not eliminate reasoning, community, providence, or accountable explanation. It initiates action that the narrative tests and interprets.

The passages also resist spectacle and private power. Jesus commands silence about the transfiguration until His resurrection. Ananias receives a difficult commission toward Saul, not a platform for self-exaltation. In Corinth the Lord's vision strengthens Paul to keep speaking amid fear, while the promise remains tied to God's people in the city. Pastoral use should honor the biblical visions as part of Scripture's authoritative witness without assuming that every dream, image, intuition, or altered state carries the same authority. Present experiences require humility, scriptural testing, wise counsel, factual corroboration where possible, and freedom from coercion.

G3705 moves from the transfiguration and Moses' burning-bush sight through Acts' visions of conversion, Gentile inclusion, mission, mistaken perception, communal discernment, and courage in witness.