2 Chronicles 15:3

15:3 For a long time ¹  Israel had no true God, or priest to instruct them, or law.

2 Chronicles 30:22

30:22 Hezekiah expressed his appreciation to all the Levites, ²  who demonstrated great skill in serving the Lord. ³  They feasted for the seven days of the festival, ⁴  and were making peace offerings and giving thanks to the Lord God of their ancestors.

2 Chronicles 35:3

35:3 He told the Levites, who instructed all Israel about things consecrated to the Lord, “Place the holy ark in the temple which King Solomon son of David of Israel built. Don’t carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel!

Deuteronomy 33:10

33:10 They will teach Jacob your ordinances

and Israel your law;

they will offer incense as a pleasant odor,

and a whole offering on your altar.

Nehemiah 8:7-8

8:7 Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah – all of whom were Levites ⁵  – were teaching the people the law, as the people remained standing. 8:8 They read from the book of God’s law, explaining it ⁶  and imparting insight. Thus the people ⁷  gained understanding from what was read.

Nehemiah 8:13-14

8:13 On the second day of the month the family leaders ⁸  met with ⁹  Ezra the scribe, together with all the people, the priests, and the Levites, to consider the words of the law. 8:14 They discovered written in the law that the LORD had commanded through ¹⁰  Moses that the Israelites should live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month,

Nehemiah 9:3

9:3 For one-fourth of the day they stood in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God, and for another fourth they were confessing their sins ¹¹  and worshiping the LORD their God.

Matthew 4:23

Jesus’ Healing Ministry

4:23 Jesus ¹²  went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, ¹³  preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of disease and sickness among the people.

Mark 4:2

4:2 He taught them many things in parables, ¹⁴  and in his teaching said to them:

Luke 4:43-44

4:43 But Jesus ¹⁵  said to them, “I must ¹⁶  proclaim the good news of the kingdom ¹⁷  of God to the other towns ¹⁸  too, for that is what I was sent ¹⁹  to do.” ²⁰  4:44 So ²¹  he continued to preach in the synagogues of Judea. ²² 

Acts 1:1

Jesus Ascends to Heaven

1:1 I wrote ²³  the former ²⁴  account, ²⁵  Theophilus, ²⁶  about all that Jesus began to do and teach

[15:3]  ¹ tn Heb “Many days.”

[30:22]  ² tn Heb “and Hezekiah spoke to the heart of all the Levites.” On the meaning of the idiom “speak to the heart of” here, see HALOT 210 s.v. II דבר 8.d.

[30:22]  ³ tn Heb “who demonstrated skill [with] good skill for the Lord.”

[30:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they ate [during] the appointed time [for] seven days.” מוֹעֵד (mo’ed, “appointed time”) is probably an adverbial accusative of time referring to the festival. However, some understand it as metonymically referring to the food eaten during the festival. See BDB 417 s.v.

[8:7]  ⁵ tc The MT reads “and the Levites.” The conjunction (“and”) should be deleted, following the LXX, Aquila, and the Vulgate. That the vav (ו) of the MT is the vav explicativum (“even the Levites”) is unlikely here.

[8:8]  ⁶ tn The exact meaning of the pual participle מְפֹרָשׁ (mÿforash) in this verse is uncertain. The basic sense of the Hebrew word seems to be “to make distinct.” The word may also have the sense of “to divide in parts,” “to interpret,” or “to translate.” The context of Neh 8:8 does not decisively clarify how the participle is to be understood here. It probably refers to the role of the Levites as those who explained or interpreted the portions of biblical text that had been publicly read on this occasion. A different option, however, is suggested by the translation distincte (“distinctly”) of the Vulgate (cf. KJV, ASV). If the Hebrew word means “distinctly” here, it would imply that the readers paid particular attention to such things as word-grouping and pronunciation so as to be sure that the listeners had every opportunity to understand the message that was being read. Yet another view is found in the Talmud, which understands translation of the Hebrew text into Aramaic to be what is in view here. The following explanation of Neh 8:8 is found in b. Megillah 3a: “‘And they read in the book, in the law of God’: this indicates the [Hebrew] text; ‘with an interpretation’: this indicates the targum; ‘and they gave the sense’: this indicates the verse stops; ‘and caused them to understand the reading’: this indicates the accentuation, or, according to another version, the Masoretic notes.” However, this ancient rabbinic view that the origins of the Targum are found in Neh 8:8 is debatable. It is not clear that the practice of paraphrasing the Hebrew biblical text into Aramaic in order to accommodate the needs of those Jews who were not at home in the Hebrew language developed this early. The translation of מְפֹרָשׁ adopted above (i.e., “explaining it”) understands the word to have in mind an explanatory function (cf. NAB, NCV, TEV, NLT) rather than one of translation.

[8:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

[8:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “were gathered to”; NAB, NIV “gathered around”; NRSV “came together to.”

[8:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[9:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “confessing.” The words “their sins” are not present in the Hebrew text of v. 3, but are clearly implied here because they are explicitly stated in v. 2.

[4:23]  ¹² tn Grk “And he.”

[4:23]  ¹³ sn Synagogues were places for Jewish prayer and worship, with recognized leadership (cf. Luke 8:41). Though the origin of the synagogue is not entirely clear, it seems to have arisen in the postexilic community during the intertestamental period. A town could establish a synagogue if there were at least ten men. In normative Judaism of the NT period, the OT scripture was read and discussed in the synagogue by the men who were present (see the Mishnah, m. Megillah 3-4; m. Berakhot 2).

[4:2]  ¹⁴ sn Though parables can contain a variety of figures of speech (cf. 2:19-22; 3:23-25; 4:3-9, 26-32; 7:15-17; 13:28), many times they are simply stories that attempt to teach spiritual truth (which is unknown to the hearers) by using a comparison with something known to the hearers. In general, parables usually advance a single idea, though there may be many parts and characters in a single parable and subordinate ideas may expand the main idea further. The beauty of using the parable as a teaching device is that it draws the listener into the story, elicits an evaluation, and demands a response.

[4:43]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:43]  ¹⁶ tn Here δεῖ (dei, “it is necessary”) indicates divine commission (cf. Luke 2:49).

[4:43]  ¹⁷ sn The good news of the kingdom, the kingdom of the rule of God through the Messiah, is the topic of Jesus’ preaching.

[4:43]  ¹⁸ tn Or “cities.”

[4:43]  ¹⁹ sn Jesus was sent by God for this purpose. This is the language of divine commission.

[4:43]  ²⁰ tn Grk “because for this purpose I was sent.”

[4:44]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the summarization.

[4:44]  ²² tc Most mss (A D Θ Ψ Ë¹³ 33 Ï latt) have “of Galilee”; others, “of the Jews” (W). “Judea” (read by Ì⁷⁵ א B Q 579 892 pc sa, and [with minor variation] C L ˹ 1241) is probably the original reading since it is both the harder reading and supported by the best witnesses. “Galilee” is an assimilation to Mark 1:39 and Matt 4:23.

[1:1]  ²³ tn Or “produced,” Grk “made.”

[1:1]  ²⁴ tn Or “first.” The translation “former” is preferred because “first” could imply to the modern English reader that the author means that his previous account was the first one to be written down. The Greek term πρῶτος (prwtos) does not necessarily mean “first” in an absolute sense, but can refer to the first in a set or series. That is what is intended here – the first account (known as the Gospel of Luke) as compared to the second one (known as Acts).

[1:1]  ²⁵ tn The Greek word λόγος (logos) is sometimes translated “book” (NRSV, NIV) or “treatise” (KJV). A formal, systematic treatment of a subject is implied, but the word “book” may be too specific and slightly misleading to the modern reader, so “account” has been used.

[1:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “O Theophilus,” but the usage of the vocative in Acts with ὦ (w) is unemphatic, following more the classical idiom (see ExSyn 69).