Text -- Acts 16:1-2 (NET)

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

16:1 He also came to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but whose father was a Greek. 16:2 The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Act 16:1

¹ sn Derbe was a city in Lycaonia about 35 mi (60 km) southeast of Lystra. It was about 90 mi (145 km) from Tarsus.

map For location see JP1 E2; JP2 E2; JP3 E2.

² sn Lystra was a city in Lycaonia about 25 mi (40 km) south of Iconium.

map For location see JP1 E2; JP2 E2; JP3 E2.

³ tn Grk “And behold, a disciple.” Here ἰδού (idou) has not been translated.

⁴ tn L&N 31.103 translates this phrase “the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer.”

⁵ sn His father was a Greek. Timothy was the offspring of a mixed marriage between a Jewish woman (see 2 Tim 1:5) and a Gentile man. On mixed marriages in Judaism, see Neh 13:23-27; Ezra 9:1-10:44; Mal 2:10-16; Jub. 30:7-17; m. Qiddushin 3.12; m. Yevamot 7.5.

NET Notes: Act 16:2

¹ sn Lystra was a city in Lycaonia about 25 mi (40 km) south of Iconium.

² sn Iconium was a city in Lycaonia about 110 mi (175 km) east of Pisidian Antioch.

³ tn For this sense of μαρτυρέω (marturew), see BDAG 618 s.v. 2.b.

⁴ tn Grk “who was well spoken of by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium.” Because of the awkwardness in English of having two relative clauses follow one another (“who was a believer…who was well spoken of”) and the awkwardness of the passive verb (“was well spoken of”), the relative pronoun at the beginning of 16:2 (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“him”) and the construction converted from passive to active at the same time a new sentence was started in the translation.