Acts 16:15

16:15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, ¹  “If ²  you consider me to be a believer in the Lord, ³  come and stay in my house.” And she persuaded ⁴  us.

Acts 16:1

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

16:1 He also came to Derbe ⁵  and to Lystra. ⁶  A disciple ⁷  named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, ⁸  but whose father was a Greek. ⁹ 

Colossians 1:25

1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ¹⁰  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ¹¹  the word of God,

[16:15]  ¹ tn Grk “urged us, saying.” The participle λέγουσα (legousa) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[16:15]  ² tn This is a first class condition in Greek, with the statement presented as real or true for the sake of the argument.

[16:15]  ³ tn Or “faithful to the Lord.” BDAG 821 s.v. πίστος 2 states concerning this verse, “Of one who confesses the Christian faith believing or a believer in the Lord, in Christ, in God πιστ. τῷ κυρίῳ Ac 16:15.” L&N 11.17 has “one who is included among the faithful followers of Christ – ‘believer, Christian, follower.’”

[16:15]  ⁴ tn Although BDAG 759 s.v. παραβιάζομαι has “urge strongly, prevail upon,” in contemporary English “persuade” is a more frequently used synonym for “prevail upon.”

[16:1]  ⁵ sn Derbe was a city in Lycaonia about 35 mi (60 km) southeast of Lystra. It was about 90 mi (145 km) from Tarsus.

[16:1]  ⁶ sn Lystra was a city in Lycaonia about 25 mi (40 km) south of Iconium.

[16:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “And behold, a disciple.” Here ἰδού (idou) has not been translated.

[16:1]  ⁸ tn L&N 31.103 translates this phrase “the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer.”

[16:1]  ⁹ sn His father was a Greek. Timothy was the offspring of a mixed marriage between a Jewish woman (see 2 Tim 1:5) and a Gentile man. On mixed marriages in Judaism, see Neh 13:23-27; Ezra 9:1-10:44; Mal 2:10-16; Jub. 30:7-17; m. Qiddushin 3.12; m. Yevamot 7.5.

[1:25]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

[1:25]  ¹¹ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.