Acts 22:1

Paul’s Defense

22:1 “Brothers and fathers, listen to my defense ¹  that I now ²  make to you.”

Romans 9:3-4

9:3 For I could wish ³  that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, ⁴  my fellow countrymen, ⁵  9:4 who are Israelites. To them belong ⁶  the adoption as sons, ⁷  the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, ⁸  and the promises.

¹ sn Listen to my defense. This is the first of several speeches Paul would make in his own defense: Acts 24:10ff.; 25:8, 16; and 26:1ff. For the use of such a speech (“apologia”) in Greek, see Josephus, Ag. Ap. 2.15 [2.147]; Wis 6:10.

² tn The adverb νυνί (nuni, “now”) is connected with the phrase τῆς πρὸς ὑμᾶς νυνὶ ἀπολογίας (th" pro" Juma" nuni apologia") rather than the verb ἀκούσατε (akousate), and the entire construction (prepositional phrase plus adverb) is in first attributive position and thus translated into English by a relative clause.

³ tn Or “For I would pray.” The implied condition is “if this could save my fellow Jews.”

⁴ tn Grk “brothers.” See BDAG 18-19 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.b.

⁵ tn Grk “my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

⁶ tn Grk “of whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁷ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

⁸ tn Or “cultic service.”