Acts 11:22-25

11:22 A report ¹  about them came to the attention ²  of the church in Jerusalem, ³  and they sent Barnabas ⁴  to Antioch. ⁵  11:23 When ⁶  he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true ⁷  to the Lord with devoted hearts, ⁸  11:24 because he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a significant number of people ⁹  were brought to the Lord. 11:25 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to look for Saul,

¹ tn Grk “Word.”

² 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.

³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁴ tc ‡ Most mss read the infinitive “to travel” after “Barnabas.” διελθεῖν (dielqein) is found before ἕως (Jews) in D E Ψ 33 Ï and some versional mss. It is lacking in Ì⁷⁴ א A B 81 1739 pc and some versional mss. Although the infinitive with ἕως fits Lukan style, it has the appearance of a scribal clarification. The infinitive has the earmarks of a Western expansion on the text and thus is unlikely to be original. NA²⁷ has the infinitive in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ tn BDAG 883 s.v. προσμένω 1.a.β has “remain true to the Lord” for προσμένειν (prosmenein) in this verse.

⁸ tn Grk “with purpose of heart”; BDAG 869 s.v. πρόθεσις 2.a translates this phrase “purpose of heart, i.e. devotion” here.

¹¹ tn Grk “a significant crowd.”