Acts 1:13-14

1:13 When ¹  they had entered Jerusalem, ²  they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. Peter ³  and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James were there. ⁴  1:14 All these continued together in prayer with one mind, together with the women, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. ⁵ 

Acts 2:44-46

2:44 All who believed were together and held ⁶  everything in common, 2:45 and they began selling ⁷  their property ⁸  and possessions and distributing the proceeds ⁹  to everyone, as anyone had need. 2:46 Every day ¹⁰  they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, ¹¹  breaking bread from ¹²  house to house, sharing their food with glad ¹³  and humble hearts, ¹⁴ 

Acts 12:11-12

12:11 When ¹⁵  Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued ¹⁶  me from the hand ¹⁷  of Herod ¹⁸  and from everything the Jewish people ¹⁹  were expecting to happen.”

12:12 When Peter ²⁰  realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, ²¹  where many people had gathered together and were praying.

Acts 16:40

16:40 When they came out of the prison, they entered Lydia’s house, and when they saw the brothers, they encouraged them and then ²²  departed.

Psalms 16:3

16:3 As for God’s chosen people who are in the land,

and the leading officials I admired so much ²³  –

Psalms 42:4

42:4 I will remember and weep! ²⁴ 

For I was once walking along with the great throng to the temple of God,

shouting and giving thanks along with the crowd as we celebrated the holy festival. ²⁵ 

Psalms 119:63

119:63 I am a friend to all your loyal followers, ²⁶ 

and to those who keep your precepts.

Proverbs 13:20

13:20 The one who associates ²⁷  with the wise grows wise,

but a companion of fools suffers harm. ²⁸ 

Malachi 3:16

3:16 Then those who respected ²⁹  the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. ³⁰  A scroll ³¹  was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.

Malachi 3:2

3:2 Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can keep standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, ³²  like a launderer’s soap.

Colossians 1:14-17

1:14 in whom we have redemption, ³³  the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of Christ

1:15 ³⁴ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn ³⁵  over all creation, ³⁶ 

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, ³⁷  whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together ³⁸  in him.

[1:13]  ¹ tn Grk “And when.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[1:13]  ² tn The word “Jerusalem” is not in the Greek text but is implied (direct objects were often omitted when clear from the context).

[1:13]  ³ sn In the various lists of the twelve, Peter (also called Simon) is always mentioned first (see also Matt 10:1-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16) and the first four are always the same, though not in the same order after Peter.

[1:13]  ⁴ tn The words “were there” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[1:14]  ⁵ sn Jesus’ brothers are mentioned in Matt 13:55 and John 7:3.

[2:44]  ⁶ tn Grk “had.”

[2:45]  ⁷ tn The imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive (“began…”). Since in context this is a description of the beginning of the community of believers, it is more likely that these statements refer to the start of various activities and practices that the early church continued for some time.

[2:45]  ⁸ tn It is possible that the first term for property (κτήματα, kthmata) refers to real estate (as later usage seems to indicate) while the second term (ὑπάρξεις, Juparxeis) refers to possessions in general, but it may also be that the two terms are used together for emphasis, simply indicating that all kinds of possessions were being sold. However, if the first term is more specifically a reference to real estate, it foreshadows the incident with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11.

[2:45]  ⁹ tn Grk “distributing them” (αὐτά, auta). The referent (the proceeds of the sales) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:46]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.

[2:46]  ¹¹ tn Grk “in the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.

[2:46]  ¹² tn Here κατά (kata) is used as a distributive (BDAG 512 s.v. B.1.d).

[2:46]  ¹³ sn The term glad (Grk “gladness”) often refers to joy brought about by God’s saving acts (Luke 1:14, 44; also the related verb in 1:47; 10:21).

[2:46]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “with gladness and humbleness of hearts.” It is best to understand καρδίας (kardias) as an attributed genitive, with the two nouns it modifies actually listing attributes of the genitive noun which is related to them.

[12:11]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “And when.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[12:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “delivered.”

[12:11]  ¹⁷ sn Here the hand of Herod is a metaphor for Herod’s power or control.

[12:11]  ¹⁸ sn King Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great).

[12:11]  ¹⁹ sn Luke characterizes the opposition here as the Jewish people, including their leadership (see 12:3).

[12:12]  ²⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:12]  ²¹ tn Grk “John who was also called Mark.”

[16:40]  ²² tn “Then” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to clarify the logical sequence in the translation.

[16:3]  ²³ tn Heb “regarding the holy ones who [are] in the land, they; and the mighty [ones] in [whom is/was] all my desire.” The difficult syntax makes the meaning of the verse uncertain. The phrase “holy ones” sometimes refers to God’s angelic assembly (see Ps 89:5, 7), but the qualifying clause “who are in the land” suggests that here it refers to God’s people (Ps 34:9) or to their priestly leaders (2 Chr 35:3).

[42:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “These things I will remember and I will pour out upon myself my soul.” “These things” are identified in the second half of the verse as those times when the psalmist worshiped in the Lord’s temple. The two cohortative forms indicate the psalmist’s resolve to remember and weep. The expression “pour out upon myself my soul” refers to mourning (see Job 30:16).

[42:4]  ²⁵ tc Heb “for I was passing by with the throng [?], I was walking with [?] them to the house of God; with a voice of a ringing shout and thanksgiving a multitude was observing a festival.” The Hebrew phrase בַּסָּךְ אֶדַּדֵּם (bassakh ’eddaddem, “with the throng [?] I was walking with [?]”) is particularly problematic. The noun סָךְ (sakh) occurs only here. If it corresponds to הָמוֹן (hamon, “multitude”) then one can propose a meaning “throng.” The present translation assumes this reading (cf. NIV, NRSV). The form אֶדַּדֵּם (“I will walk with [?]”) is also very problematic. The form can be taken as a Hitpael from דָּדָה (dadah; this verb possibly appears in Isa 38:15), but the pronominal suffix is problematic. For this reason many emend the form to ם[י]אַדִּרִ (’adirim, “nobles”) or ם-רִ[י]אַדִ (’adirim, “great,” with enclitic mem [ם]). The present translation understands the latter and takes the adjective “great” as modifying “throng.” If one emends סָךְ (sakh, “throng [?]”) to סֹךְ (sokh, “shelter”; see the Qere of Ps 27:5), then ר[י]אַדִּ (’addir) could be taken as a divine epithet, “[in the shelter of] the majestic one,” a reading which may find support in the LXX and Syriac Peshitta.

[119:63]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to all who fear you.”

[13:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “walks.” When used with the preposition אֶת (’et, “with”), the verb הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk”) means “to associate with” someone (BDB 234 s.v. הָלַךְ II.3.b; e.g., Mic 6:8; Job 34:8). The active participle of הָלַךְ (“to walk”) stresses continual, durative action. One should stay in close association with the wise, and move in the same direction they do.

[13:20]  ²⁸ tn The verb form יֵרוֹעַ (yeroa’) is the Niphal imperfect of רָעַע (ra’a’), meaning “to suffer hurt.” Several have attempted to parallel the repetition in the wordplay of the first colon. A. Guillaume has “he who associates with fools will be left a fool” (“A Note on the Roots רִיע, יָרַע, and רָעַע in Hebrew,” JTS 15 [1964]: 294). Knox translated the Vulgate thus: “Fool he ends that fool befriends” (cited by D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 104).

[3:16]  ²⁹ tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”

[3:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”

[3:16]  ³¹ sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the Lord keeps an ongoing record of the names of all the redeemed (see Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12-15).

[3:2]  ³² sn The refiner’s fire was used to purify metal and refine it by melting it and allowing the dross, which floated to the top, to be scooped off.

[1:14]  ³³ tc διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ (dia tou {aimato" autou, “through his blood”) is read at this juncture by several minuscule mss (614 630 1505 2464 al) as well as a few, mostly secondary, versional and patristic witnesses. But the reading was prompted by the parallel in Eph 1:7 where the wording is solid. If these words had been in the original of Colossians, why would scribes omit them here but not in Eph 1:7? Further, the testimony on behalf of the shorter reading is quite overwhelming: {א A B C D F G Ψ 075 0150 6 33 1739 1881 Ï latt co as well as several other versions and fathers}. The conviction that “through his blood” is not authentic in Col 1:14 is as strong as the conviction that these words are authentic in Eph 1:7.

[1:15]  ³⁴ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:15]  ³⁵ tn The Greek term πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos) could refer either to first in order of time, such as a first born child, or it could refer to one who is preeminent in rank. M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 43, expresses the meaning of the word well: “The ‘firstborn’ was either the eldest child in a family or a person of preeminent rank. The use of this term to describe the Davidic king in Ps 88:28 LXX (=Ps 89:27 EVV), ‘I will also appoint him my firstborn (πρωτότοκον), the most exalted of the kings of the earth,’ indicates that it can denote supremacy in rank as well as priority in time. But whether the πρωτό- element in the word denotes time, rank, or both, the significance of the -τοκος element as indicating birth or origin (from τίκτω, give birth to) has been virtually lost except in ref. to lit. birth.” In Col 1:15 the emphasis is on the priority of Jesus’ rank as over and above creation (cf. 1:16 and the “for” clause referring to Jesus as Creator).

[1:15]  ³⁶ tn The genitive construction πάσης κτίσεως (pash" ktisew") is a genitive of subordination and is therefore translated as “over all creation.” See ExSyn 103-4.

[1:16]  ³⁷ tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.

[1:17]  ³⁸ tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.