Acts 1:3

1:3 To the same apostles ¹  also, after his suffering, ²  he presented himself alive with many convincing proofs. He was seen by them over a forty-day period ³  and spoke about matters concerning the kingdom of God.

Acts 5:36

5:36 For some time ago ⁴  Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. He ⁵  was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and nothing came of it. ⁶ 

Acts 10:17

10:17 Now while Peter was puzzling over ⁷  what the vision he had seen could signify, the men sent by Cornelius had learned where Simon’s house was ⁸  and approached ⁹  the gate.

Acts 12:11

12:11 When ¹⁰  Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued ¹¹  me from the hand ¹²  of Herod ¹³  and from everything the Jewish people ¹⁴  were expecting to happen.”

Acts 16:27

16:27 When the jailer woke up ¹⁵  and saw the doors of the prison standing open, ¹⁶  he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, ¹⁷  because he assumed ¹⁸  the prisoners had escaped.

Acts 20:28

20:28 Watch out for ¹⁹  yourselves and for all the flock of which ²⁰  the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, ²¹  to shepherd the church of God ²²  that he obtained ²³  with the blood of his own Son. ²⁴ 

[1:3]  ¹ tn Grk “to them”; the referent (the apostles) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:3]  ² sn After his suffering is a reference to Jesus’ crucifixion and the abuse which preceded it.

[1:3]  ³ tn Grk “during forty days.” The phrase “over a forty-day period” is used rather than “during forty days” because (as the other NT accounts of Jesus’ appearances make clear) Jesus was not continually visible to the apostles during the forty days, but appeared to them on various occasions.

[5:36]  ⁴ tn Grk “For before these days.”

[5:36]  ⁵ tn Grk “who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he,” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point.

[5:36]  ⁶ tn Grk “and they came to nothing.” Gamaliel’s argument is that these two insurrectionists were taken care of by natural events.

[10:17]  ⁷ tn Or “was greatly confused over.” The term means to be perplexed or at a loss (BDAG 235 s.v. διαπορέω).

[10:17]  ⁸ tn Grk “having learned.” The participle διερωτήσαντες (dierwthsante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[10:17]  ⁹ tn BDAG 418 s.v. ἐφίστημι 1 has “ἐπί τι approach or stand by someth. (Sir 41:24) Ac 10:17.”

[12:11]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Or “delivered.”

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

[12:11]  ¹³ sn King Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great).

[12:11]  ¹⁴ sn Luke characterizes the opposition here as the Jewish people, including their leadership (see 12:3).

[16:27]  ¹³ tn L&N 23.75 has “had awakened” here. It is more in keeping with contemporary English style, however, to keep the two verbal ideas parallel in terms of tense (“when the jailer woke up and saw”) although logically the second action is subsequent to the first.

[16:27]  ¹⁴ tn The additional semantic component “standing” is supplied (“standing open”) to convey a stative nuance in English.

[16:27]  ¹⁵ sn Was about to kill himself. The jailer’s penalty for failing to guard the prisoners would have been death, so he contemplated saving the leaders the trouble (see Acts 12:19; 27:42).

[16:27]  ¹⁶ tn Or “thought.”

[20:28]  ¹⁶ tn Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.

[20:28]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “in which.”

[20:28]  ¹⁸ tn Or “guardians.” BDAG 379-80 s.v. ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition…Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.

[20:28]  ¹⁹ tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou qeou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so Ì⁷⁴ A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule mss conflate these two into “of the Lord and God” (τοῦ κυρίου καὶ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, tou kuriou kai [tou] qeou). Although the evidence is evenly balanced between the first two readings, τοῦ θεοῦ is decidedly superior on internal grounds. The final prepositional phrase of this verse, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (dia tou {aimato" tou idiou), could be rendered “through his own blood” or “through the blood of his own.” In the latter translation, the object that “own” modifies must be supplied (see tn below for discussion). But this would not be entirely clear to scribes; those who supposed that ἰδίου modified αἵματος would be prone to alter “God” to “Lord” to avoid the inference that God had blood. In a similar way, later scribes would be prone to conflate the two titles, thereby affirming the deity (with the construction τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ following the Granville Sharp rule and referring to a single person [see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290]) and substitutionary atonement of Christ. For these reasons, τοῦ θεοῦ best explains the rise of the other readings and should be considered authentic.

[20:28]  ²⁰ tn Or “acquired.”

[20:28]  ²¹ tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.