Numbers 27:19

27:19 set him ¹  before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission ²  him publicly. ³ 

Deuteronomy 3:28

3:28 Commission ⁴  Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, because he will lead these people over and will enable them to inherit the land you will see.”

Deuteronomy 31:23

31:23 and the Lord ⁵  commissioned Joshua son of Nun, “Be strong and courageous, for you will take the Israelites to the land I have promised them, and I will be with you.” ⁶ 

Acts 20:28-31

20:28 Watch out for ⁷  yourselves and for all the flock of which ⁸  the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, ⁹  to shepherd the church of God ¹⁰  that he obtained ¹¹  with the blood of his own Son. ¹²  20:29 I know that after I am gone ¹³  fierce wolves ¹⁴  will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 20:30 Even from among your own group ¹⁵  men ¹⁶  will arise, teaching perversions of the truth ¹⁷  to draw the disciples away after them. 20:31 Therefore be alert, ¹⁸  remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning ¹⁹  each one of you with tears.

Acts 20:1

Paul Travels Through Macedonia and Greece

20:1 After the disturbance had ended, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging ²⁰  them and saying farewell, ²¹  he left to go to Macedonia. ²² 

Acts 1:18

1:18 (Now this man Judas ²³  acquired a field with the reward of his unjust deed, ²⁴  and falling headfirst ²⁵  he burst open in the middle and all his intestines ²⁶  gushed out.

Acts 6:13

6:13 They brought forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop saying things against this holy place ²⁷  and the law. ²⁸ 

Acts 6:2

6:2 So the twelve ²⁹  called ³⁰  the whole group ³¹  of the disciples together and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to wait on tables. ³² 

Acts 4:1

The Arrest and Trial of Peter and John

4:1 While Peter and John ³³  were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander ³⁴  of the temple guard ³⁵  and the Sadducees ³⁶  came up ³⁷  to them,

¹ tn This could be translated “position him,” or “have him stand,” since it is the causative stem of the verb “to stand.”

² tn The verb is the Piel perfect of צִוָּה (tsivvah, literally “to command”). The verb has a wide range of meanings, and so here in this context the idea of instructing gives way to a more general sense of commissioning for duty. The verb in sequence is equal to the imperfect of instruction.

³ tn Heb “in their eyes.”

⁴ tn Heb “command”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “charge Joshua.”

⁵ tn Heb “he.” Since the pronoun could be taken to refer to Moses, the referent has been specified as “the Lord” in the translation for clarity. See also the note on the word “you” later in this verse.

⁶ tc The LXX reads, “as the Lord promised them, and he will be with you.” This relieves the problem of Moses apparently promising to be with Joshua as the MT reads on the surface (“I will be with you”). However, the reading of the LXX is clearly an attempt to clarify an existing obscurity and therefore is unlikely to reflect the original.

⁷ tn Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.

⁸ tn Grk “in which.”

⁹ tn Or “guardians.” BDAG 379-80 s.v. ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition…Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.

¹⁰ tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou qeou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so Ì⁷⁴ A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule mss conflate these two into “of the Lord and God” (τοῦ κυρίου καὶ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, tou kuriou kai [tou] qeou). Although the evidence is evenly balanced between the first two readings, τοῦ θεοῦ is decidedly superior on internal grounds. The final prepositional phrase of this verse, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (dia tou {aimato" tou idiou), could be rendered “through his own blood” or “through the blood of his own.” In the latter translation, the object that “own” modifies must be supplied (see tn below for discussion). But this would not be entirely clear to scribes; those who supposed that ἰδίου modified αἵματος would be prone to alter “God” to “Lord” to avoid the inference that God had blood. In a similar way, later scribes would be prone to conflate the two titles, thereby affirming the deity (with the construction τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ following the Granville Sharp rule and referring to a single person [see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290]) and substitutionary atonement of Christ. For these reasons, τοῦ θεοῦ best explains the rise of the other readings and should be considered authentic.

¹¹ tn Or “acquired.”

¹² tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.

¹³ tn Grk “after my departure.”

¹⁴ tn That is, people like fierce wolves. See BDAG 167-68 s.v. βαρύς 4 on the term translated “fierce.” The battle that will follow would be a savage one.

¹⁵ tn Grk “from among yourselves.”

¹⁶ tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only rarely is used in a generic sense to refer to both males and females. Since Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at this point and there is nothing in the context to suggest women were included in that group (“from among your own group”), it is most likely Paul was not predicting that these false teachers would include women.

¹⁷ tn Grk “speaking crooked things”; BDAG 237 s.v. διαστρέφω 2 has “λαλεῖν διεστραμμένα teach perversions (of the truth) Ac 20:30.”

¹⁸ tn Or “be watchful.”

¹⁹ tn Or “admonishing.”

²⁰ tn Or “exhorting.”

²¹ tn Or “and taking leave of them.”

²² sn Macedonia was the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.

²³ tn The referent of “this man” (Judas) was specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁴ tn Traditionally, “with the reward of his wickedness.”

²⁵ tn Traditionally, “falling headlong.”

²⁶ tn Or “all his bowels.”

²⁷ sn This holy place is a reference to the temple.

²⁸ sn The law refers to the law of Moses. It elaborates the nature of the blasphemy in v. 11. To speak against God’s law in Torah was to blaspheme God (Deut 28:15-19). On the Jewish view of false witnesses, see Exod 19:16-18; 20:16; m. Sanhedrin 3.6; 5.1-5. Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 may indicate why the temple was mentioned.

²⁹ sn The twelve refers to the twelve apostles.

³⁰ tn Grk “calling the whole group…together, said.” The participle προσκαλεσάμενοι (proskalesamenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

³¹ tn Or “the multitude.”

³² tn Grk “to serve tables.”

³³ tn Grk “While they”; the referents (Peter and John) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁴ tn Or “captain.”

³⁵ tn Grk “the official of the temple,” a title for the commander of the Jewish soldiers guarding the temple (thus the translation, “the commander of the temple guard”). See L&N 37.91.

³⁶ sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). See also Matt 3:7; 16:1-12; 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 5:17; 23:6-8.

³⁷ tn Or “approached.” This verb often denotes a sudden appearing (BDAG 418 s.v. ἐφίστημι 1).