2 Kings 5:15-16

5:15 He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman ¹  came and stood before him. He said, “For sure ²  I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.” 5:16 But Elisha ³  replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives (whom I serve), ⁴  I will take nothing from you.” Naaman ⁵  insisted that he take it, but he refused.

2 Kings 5:20-27

5:20 Gehazi, the prophet Elisha’s servant, thought, ⁶  “Look, my master did not accept what this Syrian Naaman offered him. ⁷  As certainly as the Lord lives, I will run after him and accept something from him.” 5:21 So Gehazi ran after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?” ⁸  5:22 He answered, “Everything is fine. ⁹  My master sent me with this message, ‘Look, two servants of the prophets just arrived from the Ephraimite hill country. ¹⁰  Please give them a talent ¹¹  of silver and two suits of clothes.’” 5:23 Naaman said, “Please accept two talents of silver. ¹²  He insisted, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, along with two suits of clothes. He gave them to two of his servants and they carried them for Gehazi. ¹³  5:24 When he arrived at the hill, he took them from the servants ¹⁴  and put them in the house. Then he sent the men on their way. ¹⁵ 

5:25 When he came and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” He answered, “Your servant hasn’t been anywhere.” 5:26 Elisha ¹⁶  replied, “I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you. ¹⁷  This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants. ¹⁸  5:27 Therefore Naaman’s skin disease will afflict ¹⁹  you and your descendants forever!” When Gehazi ²⁰  went out from his presence, his skin was as white as snow. ²¹ 

Acts 3:6

3:6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, ²²  but what I do have I give you. In the name ²³  of Jesus Christ ²⁴  the Nazarene, stand up and ²⁵  walk!”

Acts 8:18-23

8:18 Now Simon, when he saw that the Spirit ²⁶  was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, offered them money, 8:19 saying, “Give me this power ²⁷  too, so that everyone I place my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.” 8:20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, ²⁸  because you thought you could acquire ²⁹  God’s gift with money! 8:21 You have no share or part ³⁰  in this matter ³¹  because your heart is not right before God! 8:22 Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord ³²  that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart. ³³  8:23 For I see that you are bitterly envious ³⁴  and in bondage to sin.”

Acts 20:33-35

20:33 I have desired ³⁵  no one’s silver or gold or clothing. 20:34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine ³⁶  provided for my needs and the needs of those who were with me. 20:35 By all these things, ³⁷  I have shown you that by working in this way we must help ³⁸  the weak, ³⁹  and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ⁴⁰ 

[5:15]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Naaman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:15]  ² tn Heb “look.”

[5:16]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “before whom I stand.”

[5:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Naaman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “said” (i.e., to himself).

[5:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “Look, my master spared this Syrian Naaman by not taking from his hand what he brought.”

[5:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “Is there peace?”

[5:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “peace.”

[5:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Look now, here, two servants came to me from the Ephraimite hill country, from the sons of the prophets.”

[5:22]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75 pounds of silver (cf. NCV, NLT, CEV).

[5:23]  ¹² tn Heb “Be resolved and accept two talents.”

[5:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “before him.”

[5:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from their hand.”

[5:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he sent the men away and they went.”

[5:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Did not my heart go as a man turned from his chariot to meet you?” The rhetorical question emphasizes that he was indeed present in “heart” (or “spirit”) and was very much aware of what Gehazi had done. In the MT the interrogative particle has been accidentally omitted before the negative particle.

[5:26]  ¹⁸ tn In the MT the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is this the time…?” It expects an emphatic negative response.

[5:27]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “cling to.”

[5:27]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:27]  ²¹ tn Traditionally, “he went from before him, leprous like snow.” But see the note at 5:1, as well as M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 66.

[3:6]  ²² tn Or “I have no money.” L&N 6.69 classifies the expression ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον (argurion kai crusion) as an idiom that is a generic expression for currency, thus “money.”

[3:6]  ²³ sn In the name. Note the authority in the name of Jesus the Messiah. His presence and power are at work for the man. The reference to “the name” is not like a magical incantation, but is designed to indicate the agent who performs the healing. The theme is quite frequent in Acts (2:38 plus 21 other times).

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[3:6]  ²⁵ tc The words “stand up and” (ἔγειρε καί, egeire kai) are not in a few mss (א B D sa), but are included in A C E Ψ 095 33 1739 Ï lat sy mae bo. The external testimony is thus fairly evenly divided, with few but important representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texttypes supporting the shorter reading. Internally, the words look like a standard scribal emendation, and may have been motivated by other healing passages where Jesus gave a similar double command (cf. Matt 9:5; Mark 2:9, [11]; Luke 5:23; [6:8]; John 5:8). On the other hand, there is some motivation for deleting ἔγειρε καί here, namely, unlike Jesus’ healing miracles, Peter raises (ἤγειρεν, hgeiren) the man to his feet (v. 7) rather than the man rising on his own. In light of the scribal tendency to harmonize, especially in immediate context, the longer reading is slightly preferred.

[8:18]  ²⁶ tc Most witnesses (Ì^45,74 A* C D E Ψ 33 1739 Ï latt sy bo) here read “the Holy Spirit” (τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, to pneuma to {agion), while a few key mss have simply τὸ πνεῦμα (א A^c B sa mae). Although it is possible that some scribes omitted τὸ ἅγιον because of its perceived superfluity (note vv. 15, 17, 19), it is far more likely that others added the adjective out of pious motives.

[8:19]  ²⁷ tn Or “ability”; Grk “authority.”

[8:20]  ²⁸ tn Grk “May your silver together with you be sent into destruction.” This is a strong curse. The gifts of God are sovereignly bestowed and cannot be purchased.

[8:20]  ²⁹ tn Or “obtain.”

[8:21]  ³⁰ tn The translation “share or part” is given by L&N 63.13.

[8:21]  ³¹ tn Since the semantic range for λόγος (logos) is so broad, a number of different translations could be given for the prepositional phrase here. Something along the lines of “in this thing” would work well, but is too colloquial for the present translation.

[8:22]  ³² tn Or “and implore the Lord.”

[8:22]  ³³ tn Grk “that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.” The passive construction is somewhat awkward in contemporary English and has thus been converted to an active construction in the translation.

[8:23]  ³⁴ tn Grk “in the gall of bitterness,” an idiom meaning to be particularly envious or resentful of someone. In this case Simon was jealous of the apostles’ power to bestow the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and wanted that power for himself. The literal phrase does not convey this to the modern reader, and in fact some modern translations have simply rendered the phrase as involving bitterness, which misses the point of the envy on Simon’s part. See L&N 88.166. The OT images come from Deut 29:17-18 and Isa 58:6.

[20:33]  ³⁵ tn Traditionally, “coveted.” BDAG 371 s.v. ἐπιθυμέω 1 has “to have a strong desire to do or secure someth., desire, long for w. gen. of the thing desired…silver, gold, clothing Ac 20:33.” The traditional term “covet” is not in common usage and difficult for many modern English readers to understand. The statement affirms Paul’s integrity. He was not doing this for personal financial gain.

[20:34]  ³⁶ tn The words “of mine” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify whose hands Paul is referring to.

[20:35]  ³⁷ sn The expression By all these things means “In everything I did.”

[20:35]  ³⁸ tn Or “must assist.”

[20:35]  ³⁹ tn Or “the sick.” See Eph 4:28.

[20:35]  ⁴⁰ sn The saying is similar to Matt 10:8. Service and generosity should be abundant. Interestingly, these exact words are not found in the gospels. Paul must have known of this saying from some other source.