Acts 9:23-25

Saul’s Escape from Damascus

9:23 Now after some days had passed, the Jews plotted ¹  together to kill him, 9:24 but Saul learned of their plot against him. ²  They were also watching ³  the city gates ⁴  day and night so that they could kill him. 9:25 But his disciples took him at night and let him down through an opening ⁵  in the wall by lowering him in a basket. ⁶ 

Acts 9:29-30

9:29 He was speaking and debating ⁷  with the Greek-speaking Jews, ⁸  but they were trying to kill him. 9:30 When the brothers found out about this, they brought him down to Caesarea ⁹  and sent him away to Tarsus.

¹ sn Fitting the pattern emphasized earlier with Stephen and his speech in Acts 7, some Jews plotted to kill God’s messenger (cf. Luke 11:53-54).

² tn The words “against him” are implied, as suggested by L&N 30.71.

³ tn Or “guarding.” This is a negative term in Luke-Acts (Luke 6:7; 14:1; 20:20).

⁴ tn The word πύλη (pulh) may refer to a house door or gate, or to the large gates used in a palace, temple, or city wall. Here the context clearly indicates a reference to the latter, so the translation “city gates” is used.

⁵ tn The opening in the wall is not specifically mentioned here, but the parallel account in 2 Cor 11:33 mentions a “window” or “opening” (θυρίς, quris) in the city wall through which Paul was lowered. One alternative to introducing mention of the opening is to translate Acts 9:25 “they let him down over the wall,” as suggested in L&N 7.61. This option is not employed by many translations, however, because for the English reader it creates an (apparent) contradiction between Acts 9:25 and 2 Cor 11:33. In reality the account here is simply more general, omitting the detail about the window.

⁶ tn On the term for “basket” used here, see BDAG 940 s.v. σπυρίς.

⁷ tn Or “arguing.” BDAG 954 s.v. συζητέω 2 gives “dispute, debate, argue…τινί ‘w. someone’” for συνεζήτει (sunezhtei).

⁸ tn Grk “the Hellenists,” but this descriptive term is largely unknown to the modern English reader. The translation “Greek-speaking Jews” attempts to convey something of who these were, but it was more than a matter of language spoken; it involved a degree of adoption of Greek culture as well.

⁹ sn Caesarea was a city on the coast of Palestine, south of Mount Carmel (not Caesarea Philippi). See the note on Caesarea in Acts 10:1.