Acts 21:20

21:20 When they heard this, they praised ¹  God. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews ²  there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers ³  of the law. ⁴ 

Acts 26:5-6

26:5 They know, ⁵  because they have known ⁶  me from time past, ⁷  if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party ⁸  of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. ⁹  26:6 And now I stand here on trial ¹⁰  because of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, ¹¹ 

Philippians 3:5-8

3:5 I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. ¹²  3:6 In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. 3:7 But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. 3:8 More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things – indeed, I regard them as dung! ¹³  – that I may gain Christ,

¹ tn Or “glorified.”

² tn Grk “how many thousands there are among the Jews.”

³ tn Or “are all zealous for the law.” BDAG 427 s.v. ζηλωτής 1.a.β has “of thing…τοῦ νόμου an ardent observer of the law Ac 21:20.”

⁴ sn That is, the law of Moses. These Jewish Christians had remained close to their Jewish practices after becoming believers (1 Cor 7:18-19; Acts 16:3).

⁵ tn These words are repeated from v. 4 (“all the Jews know”). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, it was necessary to begin a new sentence at the beginning of v. 5 in the translation, but for this to make sense, the main verb ἵσασι ({isasi) has to be repeated to connect with the ὅτι (Joti) clause (indirect discourse) in v. 5.

⁶ tn Grk “having known me from time past.” The participle προγινώσκοντες (proginwskonte") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

⁷ tn BDAG 866 s.v. προγινώσκω 2 has “Know from time past…προγινώσκοντές με ἄνωθεν Ac 26:5.” L&N 28.6 states, “‘they have already known me beforehand, if they are willing to testify’ Ac 26:5.”

⁸ tn That is, strictest religious party. “Party” alone is used in the translation because “the strictest religious party of our religion” would be redundant.

⁹ sn See the note on Pharisee in 5:34.

¹⁰ tn BDAG 568 s.v. κρίνω 5.a.α has “κρίνεσθαι ἐπί τινι be on trial because of a thing Ac 26:6.”

¹¹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

¹² sn A Pharisee was a member of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.

¹³ tn The word here translated “dung” was often used in Greek as a vulgar term for fecal matter. As such it would most likely have had a certain shock value for the readers. This may well be Paul’s meaning here, especially since the context is about what the flesh produces.