Ezekiel 18:30-32

18:30 “Therefore I will judge each person according to his conduct, ¹  O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent ²  and turn from all your wickedness; then it will not be an obstacle leading to iniquity. ³  18:31 Throw away all your sins you have committed and fashion yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! ⁴  Why should you die, O house of Israel? 18:32 For I take no delight in the death of anyone, ⁵  declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live!

Acts 2:40

2:40 With many other words he testified ⁶  and exhorted them saying, “Save yourselves from this perverse ⁷  generation!”

Acts 3:19

3:19 Therefore repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out,

Acts 3:1

Peter and John Heal a Lame Man at the Temple

3:1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time ⁸  for prayer, ⁹  at three o’clock in the afternoon. ¹⁰ 

Acts 4:16

4:16 saying, “What should we do with these men? For it is plain ¹¹  to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable miraculous sign ¹²  has come about through them, ¹³  and we cannot deny it.

James 5:19-20

5:19 My brothers and sisters, ¹⁴  if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, 5:20 he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path ¹⁵  will save that person’s ¹⁶  soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

¹ tn Heb “ways.”

² tn The verbs and persons in this verse are plural whereas the individual has been the subject of the chapter.

³ tn Or “leading to punishment.”

⁴ sn In Ezek 11:19, 36:26 the new heart and new spirit are promised as future blessings.

⁵ tn Heb “the death of the one dying.”

⁶ tn Or “warned.”

⁷ tn Or “crooked” (in a moral or ethical sense). See Luke 3:5.

⁸ tn Grk “hour.”

⁹ sn Going up to the temple at the time for prayer. The earliest Christians, being of Jewish roots, were still participating in the institutions of Judaism at this point. Their faith in Christ did not make them non-Jewish in their practices.

¹⁰ tn Grk “at the ninth hour.” This is calculated from sunrise (Josephus, Ant. 14.4.3 [14.65]; Dan 9:21).

¹¹ tn Or “evident.”

¹² tn Here σημεῖον (shmeion) has been translated as “miraculous sign” rather than simply “sign” or “miracle” since both components appear to be present in the context. It is clear that the healing of the lame man was a miracle, but for the Sanhedrin it was the value of the miraculous healing as a sign that concerned them because it gave attestation to the message of Peter and John. The sign “speaks” as Peter claimed in 3:11-16.

¹³ tn Or “has been done by them.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

¹⁵ tn Grk “from the error of his way” (using the same root as the verb “to wander, to err” in the first part of the verse).

¹⁶ tn Grk “his soul”; the referent (the sinner mentioned at the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.