Acts 8:1

8:1 And Saul agreed completely with killing ¹  him.

Saul Begins to Persecute the Church

Now on that day a great ²  persecution began ³  against the church in Jerusalem, ⁴  and all ⁵  except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions ⁶  of Judea and Samaria.

Acts 8:3

8:3 But Saul was trying to destroy ⁷  the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off ⁸  both men and women and put them in prison. ⁹ 

Acts 9:1

The Conversion of Saul

9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing out threats ¹⁰  to murder ¹¹  the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest

Acts 9:13

9:13 But Ananias replied, ¹²  “Lord, I have heard from many people ¹³  about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem,

Acts 11:19

Activity in the Church at Antioch

11:19 Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen ¹⁴  went as far as ¹⁵  Phoenicia, ¹⁶  Cyprus, ¹⁷  and Antioch, ¹⁸  speaking the message ¹⁹  to no one but Jews.

Acts 12:1-3

James is Killed and Peter Imprisoned

12:1 About that time King Herod ²⁰  laid hands on ²¹  some from the church to harm them. ²²  12:2 He had James, the brother of John, executed with a sword. ²³  12:3 When he saw that this pleased the Jews, ²⁴  he proceeded to arrest Peter too. (This took place during the feast of Unleavened Bread.) ²⁵ 

Hebrews 5:7-8

5:7 During his earthly life ²⁶  Christ ²⁷  offered ²⁸  both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion. 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered. ²⁹ 

Hebrews 10:33-34

10:33 At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and afflictions, and at other times you came to share with others who were treated in that way. 10:34 For in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, ³⁰  and you accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly ³¹  had a better and lasting possession.

[8:1]  ¹ tn The term ἀναίρεσις (anairesi") can refer to murder (BDAG 64 s.v.; 2 Macc 5:13; Josephus, Ant. 5.2.12 [5.165]).

[8:1]  ² tn Or “severe.”

[8:1]  ³ tn Grk “Now there happened on that day a great persecution.” It is less awkward to say in English “Now on that day a great persecution began.”

[8:1]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:1]  ⁵ sn All. Given that the Jerusalem church is still active after this and that the Hellenists are the focus of Acts 6-8, it is possible to argue that only the Hellenistic Christians were forced to scatter.

[8:1]  ⁶ tn Or “countryside.”

[8:3]  ⁷ tn Or “began to harm [the church] severely.” If the nuance of this verb is “destroy,” then the imperfect verb ἐλυμαίνετο (elumaineto) is best translated as a conative imperfect as in the translation above. If instead the verb is taken to mean “injure severely” (as L&N 20.24), it should be translated in context as an ingressive imperfect (“began to harm the church severely”). Either option does not significantly alter the overall meaning, since it is clear from the stated actions of Saul in the second half of the verse that he intended to destroy or ravage the church.

[8:3]  ⁸ tn The participle σύρων (surwn) has been translated as an finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[8:3]  ⁹ tn BDAG 762 s.v. παραδίδωμι 1.b has “εἰς φυλακήν put in prison Ac 8:3.”

[9:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or “Saul, making dire threats.”

[9:1]  ¹¹ tn The expression “breathing out threats and murder” is an idiomatic expression for “making threats to murder” (see L&N 33.293). Although the two terms “threats” and “murder” are syntactically coordinate, the second is semantically subordinate to the first. In other words, the content of the threats is to murder the disciples.

[9:13]  ¹² sn Ananias replied. Past events might have suggested to Ananias that this was not good counsel, but like Peter in Acts 10, Ananias’ intuitions were wrong.

[9:13]  ¹³ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[11:19]  ¹⁴ sn The phrase over Stephen means in connection with Stephen’s death. See Acts 8:1b-3.

[11:19]  ¹⁵ tn Or “finally reached.” The translations “went as far as” and “finally reached” for διῆλθον (dihlqon) in this verse are given in L&N 15.17.

[11:19]  ¹⁶ sn Phoenicia was an area along the Mediterranean coast north of Palestine.

[11:19]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and Cyprus,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[11:19]  ¹⁸ sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). This was probably the third largest city in the Greco-Roman world (Alexandria in Egypt was the second largest, and Rome the largest) and was the seat of government in Syria. Five miles away was a major temple to Artemis, Apollo, and Astarte, major pagan deities.

[11:19]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “word.”

[12:1]  ²⁰ sn King Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great). His mediocre career is summarized in Josephus, Ant. 18-19. This event took place in a.d. 42 or 43.

[12:1]  ²¹ tn Or “King Herod had some from the church arrested.”

[12:1]  ²² tn Or “to cause them injury.”

[12:2]  ²³ sn The expression executed with a sword probably refers to a beheading. James was the first known apostolic martyr (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 2.9.1-3). On James, not the Lord’s brother, see Luke 5:10; 6:14. This death ended a short period of peace noted in Acts 9:31 after the persecution mentioned in 8:1-3.

[12:3]  ²⁴ tn This could be a reference to the Jewish people (so CEV) or to the Jewish leaders (so NLT). The statement in v. 4 that Herod intended to bring Peter “out to the people” (i.e., for a public trial) may suggest the former is somewhat more likely.

[12:3]  ²⁵ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[5:7]  ²⁶ tn Grk “in the days of his flesh.”

[5:7]  ²⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:7]  ²⁸ tn Grk “who…having offered,” continuing the description of Christ from Heb 5:5-6.

[5:8]  ²⁹ sn There is a wordplay in the Greek text between the verbs “learned” (ἔμαθεν, emaqen) and “suffered” (ἔπαθεν, epaqen).

[10:34]  ³⁰ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א D² 1881 Ï), read δεσμοῖς μου (desmoi" mou, “my imprisonment”) here, a reading that is probably due to the widespread belief in the early Christian centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews (cf. Phil 1:7; Col 4:18). It may have been generated by the reading δεσμοῖς without the μου (so Ì⁴⁶ Ψ 104 pc), the force of which is so ambiguous (lit., “you shared the sufferings with the bonds”) as to be virtually nonsensical. Most likely, δεσμοῖς resulted when a scribe made an error in copying δεσμίοις (desmioi"), a reading which makes excellent sense (“[of] those in prison”) and is strongly supported by early and significant witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texttypes (A D* H 6 33 81 1739 lat sy co). Thus, δεσμίοις best explains the rise of the other readings on both internal and external grounds and is strongly preferred.

[10:34]  ³¹ tn Grk “you yourselves.”