Acts 14:21-23

Paul and Barnabas Return to Antioch in Syria

14:21 After they had proclaimed the good news in that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, ¹  to Iconium, ²  and to Antioch. ³  14:22 They strengthened ⁴  the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue ⁵  in the faith, saying, “We must enter the kingdom ⁶  of God through many persecutions.” ⁷  14:23 When they had appointed elders ⁸  for them in the various churches, ⁹  with prayer and fasting ¹⁰  they entrusted them to the protection ¹¹  of the Lord in whom they had believed.

[14:21]  ¹ sn Lystra was a city in Lycaonia about 35 mi (60 km) northwest of Derbe.

[14:21]  ² sn Iconium was a city in Lycaonia about 18 mi (30 km) north of Lystra.

[14:21]  ³ sn Antioch was a city in Pisidia about 90 mi (145 km) west northwest of Lystra.

[14:22]  ⁴ tn Grk “to Antioch, strengthening.” Due to the length of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences, a new sentence was started here. This participle (ἐπιστηρίζοντες, episthrizonte") and the following one (παρακαλοῦντες, parakalounte") have been translated as finite verbs connected by the coordinating conjunction “and.”

[14:22]  ⁵ sn And encouraged them to continue. The exhortations are like those noted in Acts 11:23; 13:43. An example of such a speech is found in Acts 20:18-35. Christianity is now characterized as “the faith.”

[14:22]  ⁶ sn This reference to the kingdom of God clearly refers to its future arrival.

[14:22]  ⁷ tn Or “sufferings.”

[14:23]  ⁸ sn Appointed elders. See Acts 20:17.

[14:23]  ⁹ tn The preposition κατά (kata) is used here in a distributive sense; see BDAG 512 s.v. κατά B.1.d.

[14:23]  ¹⁰ tn Literally with a finite verb (προσευξάμενοι, proseuxamenoi) rather than a noun, “praying with fasting,” but the combination “prayer and fasting” is so familiar in English that it is preferable to use it here.

[14:23]  ¹¹ tn BDAG 772 s.v. παρατίθημι 3.b has “entrust someone to the care or protection of someone” for this phrase. The reference to persecution or suffering in the context (v. 22) suggests “protection” is a better translation here. This looks at God’s ultimate care for the church.