2 Kings 17:27-29

17:27 So the king of Assyria ordered, “Take back one of the priests whom you ¹  deported from there. He must settle there and teach them the requirements of the God of the land.” ²  17:28 So one of the priests whom they had deported from Samaria went back and settled in Bethel. ³  He taught them how to worship ⁴  the Lord.

17:29 But each of these nations made ⁵  its own gods and put them in the shrines on the high places that the people of Samaria ⁶  had made. Each nation did this in the cities where they lived.

2 Kings 17:41

17:41 These nations are worshiping the Lord and at the same time serving their idols; their sons and grandsons do just as their fathers have done, to this very day.

Ezra 4:2

4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ⁷  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ⁸  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ⁹  from the time ¹⁰  of King Esarhaddon ¹¹  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ¹² 

Acts 17:23

17:23 For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, ¹³  I even found an altar with this inscription: ¹⁴  ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, ¹⁵  this I proclaim to you.

Acts 17:30

17:30 Therefore, although God has overlooked ¹⁶  such times of ignorance, ¹⁷  he now commands all people ¹⁸  everywhere to repent, ¹⁹ 

[17:27]  ¹ tc The second plural subject may refer to the leaders of the Assyrian army. However, some prefer to read “whom I deported,” changing the verb to a first person singular form with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix. This reading has some support from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic witnesses.

[17:27]  ² tc Heb “and let them go and let them live there, and let him teach them the requirements of the God of the land.” The two plural verbs seem inconsistent with the preceding and following contexts, where only one priest is sent back to Samaria. The singular has the support of Greek, Syriac, and Latin witnesses.

[17:28]  ³ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[17:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “fear.”

[17:29]  ⁵ sn The verb “make” refers to the production of idols. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 210-11.

[17:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “Samaritans.” This refers to the Israelites who had been deported from the land.

[4:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.

[4:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “Let us build with you.”

[4:2]  ⁹ tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran MS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Arabic version וְלוֹ (vÿlo, “and him”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

[4:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “days.”

[4:2]  ¹¹ sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669 b.c.

[4:2]  ¹² sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24-34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.

[17:23]  ¹³ tn Or “your sanctuaries.” L&N 53.54 gives “sanctuary” (place of worship) as an alternate meaning for the word σεβάσματα (sebasmata).

[17:23]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “on which was written,” but since it would have been carved in stone, it is more common to speak of an “inscription” in English. To simplify the English the relative construction with a passive verb (“on which was inscribed”) was translated as a prepositional phrase with a substantive (“inscription”).

[17:23]  ¹⁵ tn BDAG 13 s.v. ἀγνοέω 1.b has “Abs. ὅ ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε what you worship without knowing it (on the subject matter Maximus Tyr. 11, 5e: all sorts of philosophers ἴσασιν οὐκ ἑκόντες καὶ λέγουσιν ἄκοντες sc. τὸ θεῖον = they know and name God without intending to do so) Ac 17:23.” Paul, in typical Jewish Christian style, informs them of the true God, of whom their idols are an ignorant reflection.

[17:30]  ¹⁶ tn Or “has deliberately paid no attention to.”

[17:30]  ¹⁷ tn Or “times when people did not know.”

[17:30]  ¹⁸ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[17:30]  ¹⁹ sn He now commands all people everywhere to repent. God was now asking all mankind to turn to him. No nation or race was excluded.