11:19 Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen 14 went as far as 15 Phoenicia, 16 Cyprus, 17 and Antioch, 18 speaking the message 19 to no one but Jews. 11:20 But there were some men from Cyprus 20 and Cyrene 21 among them who came 22 to Antioch 23 and began to speak to the Greeks 24 too, proclaiming the good news of the Lord Jesus. 11:21 The 25 hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed 26 turned 27 to the Lord. 11:22 A report 28 about them came to the attention 29 of the church in Jerusalem, 30 and they sent Barnabas 31 to Antioch. 32 11:23 When 33 he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true 34 to the Lord with devoted hearts, 35 11:24 because he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a significant number of people 36 were brought to the Lord. 11:25 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to look for Saul, 11:26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. 37 So 38 for a whole year Barnabas and Saul 39 met with the church and taught a significant number of people. 40 Now it was in Antioch 41 that the disciples were first called Christians. 42
11:27 At that time 43 some 44 prophets 45 came down 46 from Jerusalem 47 to Antioch. 48 11:28 One of them, named Agabus, got up 49 and predicted 50 by the Spirit that a severe 51 famine 52 was about to come over the whole inhabited world. 53 (This 54 took place during the reign of Claudius.) 55 11:29 So the disciples, each in accordance with his financial ability, 56 decided 57 to send relief 58 to the brothers living in Judea. 11:30 They did so, 59 sending their financial aid 60 to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
1 sn The word of the Lord is a technical expression in OT literature, often referring to a divine prophetic utterance (e.g., Gen 15:1, Isa 1:10, Jonah 1:1). In the NT it occurs 15 times: 3 times as ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου (rJhma tou kuriou; here and in Luke 22:61, 1 Pet 1:25) and 12 times as λόγος τοῦ κυρίου (logo" tou kuriou; Acts 8:25; 13:44, 48, 49; 15:35, 36; 16:32; 19:10, 20; 1 Thess 1:8, 4:15; 2 Thess 3:1). As in the OT, this phrase focuses on the prophetic nature and divine origin of what has been said.
2 tn The imperfect verb ἔλεγεν (elegen) is taken as a customary imperfect.
3 sn John…Spirit. This remark repeats Acts 1:5.
4 tc Codex Bezae (D) and {a few other Western witnesses} here lack ὁ θεός (Jo qeo", “God”), perhaps because these scribes considered the Holy Spirit to be the gift of Christ rather than the gift of God; thus leaving the subject implicit would naturally draw the reader back to v. 16 to see the Lord Jesus as the bestower of the Spirit.
5 sn That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.
6 tn Or “gave us when we believed”; or “gave us after we believed”; or “gave us who believed”; or “gave them when they believed the same gift as he also gave us.” The aorist dative plural participle πιστεύσασιν (pisteusasin) can be understood in several different ways: (1) It could modify ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “us”) or αὐτοῖς (autois, “them”). Proximity (it immediately follows ἡμῖν) would suggest that it belongs with ἡμῖν, so the last option (“gave them when they believed the same gift he also gave us”) is less likely. (2) The participle could be either adverbial or adjectival, modifying ἡμῖν. This decision is primarily a contextual one. The point Peter made is not whether or not the Gentiles believed, since both groups (“us” and “they”) had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The point was whether or not the Gentiles received the Spirit when they believed, just as Jewish Christians had received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost when they believed. Translated as an adjectival participle, πιστεύσασιν only affirms the fact of belief, however, and raises somewhat of a theological problem if one realizes, “Would God have given the Gentiles the Spirit if they had not believed?” (In other words, belief in itself is a theological prerequisite for receiving the Spirit. As such, in the case of the Gentiles, it is assumed.) Thus in context it makes more sense to understand the participle πιστεύσασιν as adverbial, related to the time of belief in connection with the giving of the Spirit. (3) The participle πιστεύσασιν as a temporal participle can refer to action antecedent to the action of the main verb ἔδωκεν (edwken) or contemporaneous with it. Logically, at least, the gift of the Spirit followed belief in the case of the original Christians, who had believed before the day of Pentecost. In the case of Cornelius and his household, belief and the reception of the Spirit were virtually simultaneous. One can argue that Peter is “summarizing” the experience of Jewish Christians, and therefore the actions of belief and reception of the Spirit, while historically separate, have been “telescoped” into one (“gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed”), but to be technically accurate the participle πιστεύσασιν should be translated “gave them the same gift as he also gave us after we believed.” A number of these problems can be avoided, however, by using a translation in English that maintains some of the ambiguity of the Greek original. Thus “if God gave them the same gift as he also gave us after believing” is used, where the phrase “after believing” can refer either to “them” or to “us,” or both.
7 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
8 tn Or “prevent,” “forbid” (BDAG 580 s.v. κωλύω 1.a). Peter’s point is that he will not stand in the way of God.
9 tn Grk “these things.”
10 tn Or “became silent,” but this would create an apparent contradiction with the subsequent action of praising God. The point, in context, is that they ceased objecting to what Peter had done.
11 tn Or “glorified.”
12 sn Here the summary phrase for responding to the gospel is the repentance that leads to life. Note how the presence of life is tied to the presence of the Spirit (cf. John 4:7-42; 7:37-39).
13 sn In the Greek text the phrase even to the Gentiles is in an emphatic position.
14 sn The phrase over Stephen means in connection with Stephen’s death. See Acts 8:1b-3.
15 tn Or “finally reached.” The translations “went as far as” and “finally reached” for διῆλθον (dihlqon) in this verse are given in L&N 15.17.
16 sn Phoenicia was an area along the Mediterranean coast north of Palestine.
17 tn Grk “and Cyprus,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.
18 sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). This was probably the third largest city in the Greco-Roman world (Alexandria in Egypt was the second largest, and Rome the largest) and was the seat of government in Syria. Five miles away was a major temple to Artemis, Apollo, and Astarte, major pagan deities.
19 tn Grk “word.”
20 sn Cyprus was a large island in the Mediterranean off the south coast of Asia Minor.
21 sn Cyrene was a city on the northern African coast west of Egypt.
22 tn Grk “among them, coming to Antioch began to speak.” The participle ἐλθόντες (elqonte") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
23 sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.
24 sn The statement that some men from Cyprus and Cyrene…began to speak to the Greeks shows that Peter’s experience of reaching out to the Gentiles was not unique.
25 tn Grk “And the.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
26 tn The participle πιστεύσας (pisteusa") is articular and thus cannot be adverbial. It is adjectival, modifying ἀριθμός (ariqmo"), but has been translated into English as a relative clause (“who believed”).
27 sn Again, the expression turned is a summary term for responding to the gospel.
28 tn Grk “Word.”
29 tn Grk “was heard in the ears,” an idiom. L&N 24.67 states that the idiom means “to hear in secret” (which it certainly does in Matt 10:27), but secrecy does not seem to be part of the context here, and there is no particular reason to suggest the report was made in secret.
30 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
31 tc ‡ Most
32 sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19. Again the Jerusalem church exercised an oversight role.
33 tn Grk “Antioch, who when.” The relative pronoun was omitted and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek.
34 tn BDAG 883 s.v. προσμένω 1.a.β has “remain true to the Lord” for προσμένειν (prosmenein) in this verse.
35 tn Grk “with purpose of heart”; BDAG 869 s.v. πρόθεσις 2.a translates this phrase “purpose of heart, i.e. devotion” here.
36 tn Grk “a significant crowd.”
37 sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.
38 tn Grk “So it happened that” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
39 tn Grk “year they”; the referents (Barnabas and Saul) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
40 tn Grk “a significant crowd.”
41 sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.
42 sn The term Christians appears only here, in Acts 26:28, and 1 Pet 4:16 in the NT.
43 tn Grk “In these days,” but the dative generally indicates a specific time.
44 tn The word “some” is not in the Greek text, but is usually used in English when an unspecified number is mentioned.
45 sn Prophets are mentioned only here and in 13:1 and 21:10 in Acts.
46 sn Came down from Jerusalem. Antioch in Syria lies due north of Jerusalem. In Western languages it is common to speak of north as “up” and south as “down,” but the NT maintains the Hebrew idiom which speaks of any direction away from Jerusalem as down (since Mount Zion was thought of in terms of altitude).
47 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
48 sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.
49 tn Grk “getting up, predicted.” The participle ἀναστάς (anasta") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
50 tn Or “made clear”; Grk “indicated beforehand” (BDAG 920 s.v. σημαίνω 2).
51 tn Grk “great.”
52 sn This famine is one of the firmly fixed dates in Acts. It took place from
53 tn Or “whole Roman Empire.” While the word οἰκουμένη (oikoumenh) does occasionally refer specifically to the Roman Empire, BDAG 699 s.v. οἰκουνένη 2 does not list this passage (only Acts 24:5 and 17:6).
54 tn Grk “world, which.” The relative pronoun (“which”) was replaced by the demonstrative pronoun “this” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek.
55 sn This is best taken as a parenthetical note by the author. Claudius was the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, known as Claudius, who ruled from
56 tn So BDAG 410 s.v. εὐπορέω.
57 tn Or “determined,” “resolved.”
58 tn Grk “to send [something] for a ministry,” but today it is common to speak of sending relief for victims of natural disasters.
59 tn Grk “Judea, which they did.” The relative pronoun was omitted and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek.
60 tn The words “their financial aid” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.