Acts 24:14

24:14 But I confess this to you, that I worship ¹  the God of our ancestors ²  according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law ³  and that is written in the prophets.

Acts 5:17

Further Trouble for the Apostles

5:17 Now the high priest rose up, and all those with him (that is, the religious party of the Sadducees ⁴ ), ⁵  and they were filled with jealousy. ⁶ 

Acts 15:5

15:5 But some from the religious party of the Pharisees ⁷  who had believed stood up and said, “It is necessary ⁸  to circumcise the Gentiles ⁹  and to order them to observe ¹⁰  the law of Moses.”

Acts 26:5

26:5 They know, ¹¹  because they have known ¹²  me from time past, ¹³  if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party ¹⁴  of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. ¹⁵ 

Acts 28:22

28:22 But we would like to hear from you what you think, for regarding this sect we know ¹⁶  that people ¹⁷  everywhere speak against ¹⁸  it.”

Acts 28:1

Paul on Malta

28:1 After we had safely reached shore, ¹⁹  we learned that the island was called Malta. ²⁰ 

Colossians 1:19

1:19 For God ²¹  was pleased to have all his ²²  fullness dwell ²³  in the Son ²⁴ 

¹ tn Or “serve.”

² tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

³ sn That is, the law of Moses. Paul was claiming that he legitimately worshiped the God of Israel. He was arguing that this amounted to a religious dispute rather than a political one, so that the Roman authorities need not concern themselves with it.

⁴ sn See the note on Sadducees in 4:1.

⁵ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

⁶ sn Filled with jealousy. In Acts, the term “jealousy” (ζήλος, zhlos) occurs only here and in Acts 13:45. It is a key term in Judaism for religiously motivated rage (1 Macc 2:24; 1QH 14:13-15; m. Sanhedrin 9:5). It was a zeal motivated by a desire to maintain the purity of the faith.

⁷ sn See the note on Pharisee in 5:34.

⁸ sn The Greek word used here (δεῖ, dei) is a strong term that expresses divine necessity. The claim is that God commanded the circumcision of Gentiles.

⁹ tn Grk “them”; the referent (the Gentiles) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Or “keep.”

¹¹ 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.

¹² tn Grk “having known me from time past.” The participle προγινώσκοντες (proginwskonte") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

¹³ 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.”

¹⁴ tn That is, strictest religious party. “Party” alone is used in the translation because “the strictest religious party of our religion” would be redundant.

¹⁵ sn See the note on Pharisee in 5:34.

¹⁶ tn Grk “regarding this sect it is known to us.” The passive construction “it is known to us” has been converted to an active one to simplify the translation.

¹⁷ tn Grk “that everywhere it is spoken against.” To simplify the translation the passive construction “it is spoken against” has been converted to an active one with the subject “people” supplied.

¹⁸ tn On the term translated “speak against,” see BDAG 89 s.v. ἀντιλέγω 1.

¹⁹ tn Grk “We having been brought safely through” [to land] (same verb as 27:44). The word “shore” is implied, and the slight variations in translation from 27:44 have been made to avoid redundancy in English. The participle διασωθέντες (diaswqente") has been taken temporally.

²⁰ sn Malta is an island (known by the same name today) in the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily. The ship had traveled 625 mi (1,000 km) in the storm.

²¹ tn The noun “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but since God is the one who reconciles the world to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:19), he is clearly the subject of εὐδόκησεν (eudokhsen).

²² tn The Greek article τό (to), insofar as it relates to God, may be translated as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “his.” BDAG 404 s.v. εὐδοκέω 1 translates the phrase as “all the fullness willed to dwell in him” thus leaving the referent as impersonal. Insofar as Paul is alluding to the so-called emanations from God this is acceptable. But the fact that “the fullness” dwells in a person (i.e., “in him”) seems to argue for the translation “his fullness” where “his” refers to God.

²³ tn The aorist verb κατοικῆσαι (katoikhsai) could be taken as an ingressive, in which case it refers to the incarnation and may be translated as “begin to dwell, to take up residence.” It is perhaps better, though, to take it as a constative aorist and simply a reference to the fact that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. This is a permanent dwelling, though, not a temporary one, as the present tense in 2:9 makes clear.

²⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (the Son; see v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.