Text -- Acts 2:39-47 (NET)

2:39 For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” 2:40 With many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation!” 2:41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added.

The Fellowship of the Early Believers

2:42 They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 2:43 Reverential awe came over everyone, and many wonders and miraculous signs came about by the apostles. 2:44 All who believed were together and held everything in common, 2:45 and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need. 2:46 Every day they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts, 2:47 praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Act 2:39

¹ sn The promise refers to the promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus received from the Father in 2:33 and which he now pours out on others. The promise consists of the Holy Spirit (see note in 2:33). Jesus is the active mediator of God’s blessing.

NET Notes: Act 2:40

¹ tn Or “warned.”

² tn Or “crooked” (in a moral or ethical sense). See Luke 3:5.

NET Notes: Act 2:41

¹ tn Or “who acknowledged the truth of.”

² tn Grk “word.”

³ tn Grk “souls” (here an idiom for the whole person).

⁴ tn Or “were won over.”

NET Notes: Act 2:42

¹ sn Fellowship refers here to close association involving mutual involvement and relationships.

² tn Grk “prayers.” This word was translated as a collective singular in keeping with English style.

NET Notes: Act 2:43

¹ tn Or “Fear.”

² tn Grk “on every soul” (here “soul” is an idiom for the whole person).

³ tn In this context the miraculous nature of these signs is implied. Cf. BDAG 920 s.v. σημεῖον 2.a.

NET Notes: Act 2:44

¹ tn Grk “had.”

NET Notes: Act 2:45

¹ tn The imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive (“began…”). Since in context this is a description of the beginning of the community of believers, it is more likely that these statements refer to the start of various activities and practices that the early church continued for some time.

² tn It is possible that the first term for property (κτήματα, kthmata) refers to real estate (as later usage seems to indicate) while the second term (ὑπάρξεις, Juparxeis) refers to possessions in general, but it may also be that the two terms are used together for emphasis, simply indicating that all kinds of possessions were being sold. However, if the first term is more specifically a reference to real estate, it foreshadows the incident with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11.

³ tn Grk “distributing them” (αὐτά, auta). The referent (the proceeds of the sales) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Act 2:46

¹ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.

² tn Grk “in the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.

³ tn Here κατά (kata) is used as a distributive (BDAG 512 s.v. B.1.d).

⁴ sn The term glad (Grk “gladness”) often refers to joy brought about by God’s saving acts (Luke 1:14, 44; also the related verb in 1:47; 10:21).

⁵ tn Grk “with gladness and humbleness of hearts.” It is best to understand καρδίας (kardias) as an attributed genitive, with the two nouns it modifies actually listing attributes of the genitive noun which is related to them.

NET Notes: Act 2:47

¹ tn Or “the favor.”

² tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.