Acts 4:10

4:10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ ¹  the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands before you healthy.

Acts 17:18

17:18 Also some of the Epicurean ²  and Stoic ³  philosophers were conversing ⁴  with him, and some were asking, ⁵  “What does this foolish babbler ⁶  want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” ⁷  (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ⁸ 

Acts 21:11

21:11 He came ⁹  to us, took ¹⁰  Paul’s belt, ¹¹  tied ¹²  his own hands and feet with it, ¹³  and said, “The Holy Spirit says this: ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over ¹⁴  to the Gentiles.’”

¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

² sn An Epicurean was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, who founded a school in Athens about 300 b.c. Although the Epicureans saw the aim of life as pleasure, they were not strictly hedonists, because they defined pleasure as the absence of pain. Along with this, they desired the avoidance of trouble and freedom from annoyances. They saw organized religion as evil, especially the belief that the gods punished evildoers in an afterlife. In keeping with this, they were unable to accept Paul’s teaching about the resurrection.

³ sn A Stoic was a follower of the philosophy founded by Zeno (342-270 b.c.), a Phoenician who came to Athens and modified the philosophical system of the Cynics he found there. The Stoics rejected the Epicurean ideal of pleasure, stressing virtue instead. The Stoics emphasized responsibility for voluntary actions and believed risks were worth taking, but thought the actual attainment of virtue was difficult. They also believed in providence.

⁴ tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβάλλω 1 has “converse, confer” here.

⁵ tn Grk “saying.”

⁶ tn Or “ignorant show-off.” The traditional English translation of σπερμολόγος (spermologo") is given in L&N 33.381 as “foolish babbler.” However, an alternate view is presented in L&N 27.19, “(a figurative extension of meaning of a term based on the practice of birds in picking up seeds) one who acquires bits and pieces of relatively extraneous information and proceeds to pass them off with pretense and show – ‘ignorant show-off, charlatan.’” A similar view is given in BDAG 937 s.v. σπερμολόγος: “in pejorative imagery of persons whose communication lacks sophistication and seems to pick up scraps of information here and there scrapmonger, scavenger…Engl. synonyms include ‘gossip’, ‘babbler’, chatterer’; but these terms miss the imagery of unsystematic gathering.”

⁷ tn The meaning of this phrase is not clear. Literally it reads “strange deities” (see BDAG 210 s.v. δαιμόνιον 1). The note of not being customary is important. In the ancient world what was new was suspicious. The plural δαιμονίων (daimoniwn, “deities”) shows the audience grappling with Paul’s teaching that God was working through Jesus.

⁸ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

³ tn Grk “And coming.” 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. The participle ἐλθών (elqwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

⁴ tn Grk “and taking.” This 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. The participle ἄρας (aras) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

⁵ sn The belt was a band or sash used to keep money as well as to gird up the tunic (BDAG 431 s.v. ζώνη).

⁶ tn The participle δήσας (dhsas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

⁷ tn The words “with it” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

⁸ tn Grk “and will deliver him over into the hands of” (a Semitic idiom).