Acts 1:16

1:16 “Brothers, ¹  the scripture had to be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit foretold through ²  David concerning Judas – who became the guide for those who arrested Jesus –

Acts 2:22

2:22 “Men of Israel, ³  listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, ⁴  wonders, and miraculous signs ⁵  that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know –

Acts 3:13

3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ⁶  the God of our forefathers, ⁷  has glorified ⁸  his servant ⁹  Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected ¹⁰  in the presence of Pilate after he had decided ¹¹  to release him.

Acts 4:27

4:27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against ¹²  your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ¹³ 

Acts 10:38

10:38 with respect to Jesus from Nazareth, ¹⁴  that ¹⁵  God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. He ¹⁶  went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, ¹⁷  because God was with him. ¹⁸ 

Acts 11:17

11:17 Therefore if God ¹⁹  gave them the same gift ²⁰  as he also gave us after believing ²¹  in the Lord Jesus Christ, ²²  who was I to hinder ²³  God?”

Acts 18:5

18:5 Now when Silas and Timothy arrived ²⁴  from Macedonia, ²⁵  Paul became wholly absorbed with proclaiming ²⁶  the word, testifying ²⁷  to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. ²⁸ 

Acts 19:4

19:4 Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, ²⁹  that is, in Jesus.”

Acts 19:13

19:13 But some itinerant ³⁰  Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name ³¹  of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by ³²  evil spirits, saying, “I sternly warn ³³  you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

Acts 24:24

Paul Speaks Repeatedly to Felix

24:24 Some days later, when Felix ³⁴  arrived with his wife Drusilla, ³⁵  who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him speak ³⁶  about faith in Christ Jesus. ³⁷ 

[1:16]  ¹ tn Grk “Men brothers.” In light of the compound phrase ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί (andre" adelfoi, “Men brothers”) Peter’s words are best understood as directly addressed to the males present, possibly referring specifically to the twelve (really ten at this point – eleven minus the speaker, Peter) mentioned by name in v. 13.

[1:16]  ² tn Grk “foretold by the mouth of.”

[2:22]  ³ tn Or “Israelite men,” although this is less natural English. The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it is conceivable that this is a generic usage, although it can also be argued that Peter’s remarks were addressed primarily to the men present, even if women were there.

[2:22]  ⁴ tn Or “miraculous deeds.”

[2:22]  ⁵ tn Again, the context indicates the miraculous nature of these signs, and this is specified in the translation.

[3:13]  ⁵ tc ‡ The repetition of ὁ θεός (Jo qeos, “God”) before the names of Isaac and Jacob is found in Ì⁷⁴ א C (A D without article) 36 104 1175 pc lat. The omission of the second and third ὁ θεός is supported by B E Ψ 33 1739 Ï pc. The other time that Exod 3:6 is quoted in Acts (7:32) the best witnesses also lack the repeated ὁ θεός, but the three other times this OT passage is quoted in the NT the full form, with the thrice-mentioned θεός, is used (Matt 22:32; Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37). Scribes would be prone to conform the wording here to the LXX; the longer reading is thus most likely not authentic. NA²⁷ has the words in brackets, indicating doubts as to their authenticity.

[3:13]  ⁶ tn Or “ancestors”; Grk “fathers.”

[3:13]  ⁷ sn Has glorified. Jesus is alive, raised and active, as the healing illustrates so dramatically how God honors him.

[3:13]  ⁸ sn His servant. The term servant has messianic connotations given the context of the promise, the note of suffering, and the titles and functions noted in vv. 14-15.

[3:13]  ⁹ tn Or “denied,” “disowned.”

[3:13]  ¹⁰ tn This genitive absolute construction could be understood as temporal (“when he had decided”) or concessive (“although he had decided”).

[4:27]  ⁷ sn The application of Ps 2:1-2 is that Jews and Gentiles are opposing Jesus. The surprise of the application is that Jews are now found among the enemies of God’s plan.

[4:27]  ⁸ sn A wordplay on “Christ,” v. 26, which means “one who has been anointed.”

[10:38]  ⁹ sn The somewhat awkward naming of Jesus as from Nazareth here is actually emphatic. He is the key subject of these key events.

[10:38]  ¹⁰ tn Or “how.” The use of ὡς (Jws) as an equivalent to ὅτι (Joti) to introduce indirect or even direct discourse is well documented. BDAG 1105 s.v. ὡς 5 lists Acts 10:28 in this category.

[10:38]  ¹¹ tn Grk “power, who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he,” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek.

[10:38]  ¹² tn The translation “healing all who were oppressed by the devil” is given in L&N 22.22.

[10:38]  ¹³ sn See Acts 7:9.

[11:17]  ¹¹ tc Codex Bezae (D) and {a few other Western witnesses} here lack ὁ θεός (Jo qeo", “God”), perhaps because these scribes considered the Holy Spirit to be the gift of Christ rather than the gift of God; thus leaving the subject implicit would naturally draw the reader back to v. 16 to see the Lord Jesus as the bestower of the Spirit.

[11:17]  ¹² sn That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.

[11:17]  ¹³ tn Or “gave us when we believed”; or “gave us after we believed”; or “gave us who believed”; or “gave them when they believed the same gift as he also gave us.” The aorist dative plural participle πιστεύσασιν (pisteusasin) can be understood in several different ways: (1) It could modify ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “us”) or αὐτοῖς (autois, “them”). Proximity (it immediately follows ἡμῖν) would suggest that it belongs with ἡμῖν, so the last option (“gave them when they believed the same gift he also gave us”) is less likely. (2) The participle could be either adverbial or adjectival, modifying ἡμῖν. This decision is primarily a contextual one. The point Peter made is not whether or not the Gentiles believed, since both groups (“us” and “they”) had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The point was whether or not the Gentiles received the Spirit when they believed, just as Jewish Christians had received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost when they believed. Translated as an adjectival participle, πιστεύσασιν only affirms the fact of belief, however, and raises somewhat of a theological problem if one realizes, “Would God have given the Gentiles the Spirit if they had not believed?” (In other words, belief in itself is a theological prerequisite for receiving the Spirit. As such, in the case of the Gentiles, it is assumed.) Thus in context it makes more sense to understand the participle πιστεύσασιν as adverbial, related to the time of belief in connection with the giving of the Spirit. (3) The participle πιστεύσασιν as a temporal participle can refer to action antecedent to the action of the main verb ἔδωκεν (edwken) or contemporaneous with it. Logically, at least, the gift of the Spirit followed belief in the case of the original Christians, who had believed before the day of Pentecost. In the case of Cornelius and his household, belief and the reception of the Spirit were virtually simultaneous. One can argue that Peter is “summarizing” the experience of Jewish Christians, and therefore the actions of belief and reception of the Spirit, while historically separate, have been “telescoped” into one (“gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed”), but to be technically accurate the participle πιστεύσασιν should be translated “gave them the same gift as he also gave us after we believed.” A number of these problems can be avoided, however, by using a translation in English that maintains some of the ambiguity of the Greek original. Thus “if God gave them the same gift as he also gave us after believing” is used, where the phrase “after believing” can refer either to “them” or to “us,” or both.

[11:17]  ¹⁴ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:17]  ¹⁵ tn Or “prevent,” “forbid” (BDAG 580 s.v. κωλύω 1.a). Peter’s point is that he will not stand in the way of God.

[18:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “came down.”

[18:5]  ¹⁴ sn Macedonia was the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.

[18:5]  ¹⁵ tn BDAG 971 s.v. συνέχω 6 states, “συνείχετο τῷ λόγῳ (Paul) was wholly absorbed in preaching Ac 18:5…in contrast to the activity cited in vs. 3.” The imperfect συνείχετο (suneiceto) has been translated as an ingressive imperfect (“became wholly absorbed…”), stressing the change in Paul’s activity once Silas and Timothy arrived. At this point Paul apparently began to work less and preach more.

[18:5]  ¹⁶ tn BDAG 233 s.v. διαμαρτύρομαι 2 has “testify of, bear witness to solemnly (orig. under oath)…W. acc. and inf. foll. Ac 18:5.”

[18:5]  ¹⁷ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[19:4]  ¹⁵ sn These disciples may have had their contact with John early on in the Baptist’s ministry before Jesus had emerged. This is the fifth time Luke links John the Baptist and Jesus (Acts 1:5; 11:16; 13:25; 18:25).

[19:13]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “some Jewish exorcists who traveled about.” The adjectival participle περιερχομένων (periercomenwn) has been translated as “itinerant.”

[19:13]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “to name the name.”

[19:13]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “who had.” Here ἔχω (ecw) is used of demon possession, a common usage according to BDAG 421 s.v. ἔχω 7.a.α.

[19:13]  ²⁰ sn The expression I sternly warn you means “I charge you as under oath.”

[24:24]  ¹⁹ sn See the note on Antonius Felix in 23:24.

[24:24]  ²⁰ sn It is possible that Drusilla, being Jewish, was the source of Felix’s knowledge about the new movement called Christianity. The youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I and sister of Agrippa II, she would have been close to 20 years old at the time. She had married the king of a small region in Syria but divorced him at the age of 16 to marry Felix. This was her second marriage and Felix’s third (Josephus, Ant. 19.9.1 [19.354], 20.7.2 [20.141-144]). As a member of Herod’s family, she probably knew about the Way.

[24:24]  ²¹ tn The word “speak” is implied; BDAG 32 s.v. ἀκούω 1.c has “ἤκουσεν αὐτοῦ περὶ τῆς…πίστεως he heard him speak about faith Ac 24:24.”

[24:24]  ²² tn Or “Messiah Jesus”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”