4:13 When they saw the boldness 1 of Peter and John, and discovered 2 that they were uneducated 3 and ordinary 4 men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been with Jesus.
1 tn Or “courage.”
2 tn Or “and found out.”
3 sn Uneducated does not mean “illiterate,” that is, unable to read or write. Among Jews in NT times there was almost universal literacy, especially as the result of widespread synagogue schools. The term refers to the fact that Peter and John had no formal rabbinic training and thus, in the view of their accusers, were not qualified to expound the law or teach publicly. The objection is like Acts 2:7.
4 tn For the translation of ἰδιῶται (idiwtai) as “ordinary men” see L&N 27.26.
5 tn Or “Lord, take notice of.”
6 sn Grant to your servants to speak your message with great courage. The request is not for a stop to persecution or revenge on the opponents, but for boldness (great courage) to carry out the mission of proclaiming the message of what God is doing through Jesus.
7 tn Grk “slaves.” See the note on the word “servants” in 2:18.
8 tn Grk “word.”
9 tn Or “with all boldness.”
10 tn To avoid a lengthy, convoluted sentence in English, the Greek sentence was broken up at this point and the verb “pray” was inserted in the English translation to pick up the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseuxomenoi, “praying”) in v. 18.
11 tn Grk “that a word may be given to me in the opening of my mouth.” Here “word” (λόγος, logo") is used in the sense of “message.”
12 tn The infinitive γνωρίσαι (gnwrisai, “to make known”) is functioning epexegetically to further explain what the author means by the preceding phrase “that I may be given the message when I begin to speak.”