Acts 1:20

1:20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his house become deserted, ¹  and let there be no one to live in it,’ ²  and ‘Let another take his position of responsibility.’ ³ 

Acts 7:42

7:42 But God turned away from them and gave them over ⁴  to worship the host ⁵  of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices ⁶  forty years in the wilderness, was it, ⁷  house of Israel?

Acts 19:19

19:19 Large numbers ⁸  of those who had practiced magic ⁹  collected their books ¹⁰  and burned them up in the presence of everyone. ¹¹  When ¹²  the value of the books was added up, it was found to total fifty thousand silver coins. ¹³ 

[1:20]  ¹ tn Or “uninhabited” or “empty.”

[1:20]  ² sn A quotation from Ps 69:25.

[1:20]  ³ tn Or “Let another take his office.”

[7:42]  ⁴ sn The expression and gave them over suggests similarities to the judgment on the nations described by Paul in Rom 1:18-32.

[7:42]  ⁵ tn Or “stars.”

[7:42]  ⁶ tn The two terms for sacrifices “semantically reinforce one another and are here combined essentially for emphasis” (L&N 53.20).

[7:42]  ⁷ tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ question, “was it?”

[19:19]  ⁷ tn BDAG 472 s.v. ἱκανός 4.a has “many, quite a few” for ἱκανοί (Jikanoi) in this verse.

[19:19]  ⁸ tn On this term see BDAG 800 s.v. περίεργος 2.

[19:19]  ⁹ tn Or “scrolls.”

[19:19]  ¹⁰ tn Or “burned them up publicly.” L&N 14.66 has “‘they brought their books together and burned them up in the presence of everyone’ Ac 19:19.”

[19:19]  ¹¹ tn Grk “and when.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

[19:19]  ¹² tn Or “fifty thousand silver drachmas” (about $10,000 US dollars). BDAG 128 s.v. ἀργύριον 2.c states, “ἀργυρίου μυριάδας πέντε 50,000 (Attic silver) drachmas Ac 19:19.” Another way to express the value would be in sheep: One drachma could buy one sheep. So this many drachmas could purchase a huge flock of sheep. A drachma also equals a denarius, or a day’s wage for the average worker. So this amount would be equal to 50,000 work days or in excess of 8,300 weeks of labor (the weeks are calculated at six working days because of the Jewish cultural context). The impact of Christianity on the Ephesian economy was considerable (note in regard to this the concerns expressed in 19:26-27).