Text -- Acts 9:23-25 (NET)

Saul’s Escape from Damascus

9:23 Now after some days had passed, the Jews plotted together to kill him, 9:24 but Saul learned of their plot against him. They were also watching the city gates day and night so that they could kill him. 9:25 But his disciples took him at night and let him down through an opening in the wall by lowering him in a basket.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Act 9:23

¹ sn Fitting the pattern emphasized earlier with Stephen and his speech in Acts 7, some Jews plotted to kill God’s messenger (cf. Luke 11:53-54).

NET Notes: Act 9:24

¹ tn The words “against him” are implied, as suggested by L&N 30.71.

² tn Or “guarding.” This is a negative term in Luke-Acts (Luke 6:7; 14:1; 20:20).

³ tn The word πύλη (pulh) may refer to a house door or gate, or to the large gates used in a palace, temple, or city wall. Here the context clearly indicates a reference to the latter, so the translation “city gates” is used.

NET Notes: Act 9:25

¹ tn The opening in the wall is not specifically mentioned here, but the parallel account in 2 Cor 11:33 mentions a “window” or “opening” (θυρίς, quris) in the city wall through which Paul was lowered. One alternative to introducing mention of the opening is to translate Acts 9:25 “they let him down over the wall,” as suggested in L&N 7.61. This option is not employed by many translations, however, because for the English reader it creates an (apparent) contradiction between Acts 9:25 and 2 Cor 11:33. In reality the account here is simply more general, omitting the detail about the window.

² tn On the term for “basket” used here, see BDAG 940 s.v. σπυρίς.