Acts 10:45

10:45 The ¹  circumcised believers ²  who had accompanied Peter were greatly astonished ³  that ⁴  the gift of the Holy Spirit ⁵  had been poured out ⁶  even on the Gentiles,

Acts 11:15-18

11:15 Then as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on ⁷  them just as he did ⁸  on us at the beginning. ⁹  11:16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, ¹⁰  as he used to say, ¹¹  ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹²  11:17 Therefore if God ¹³  gave them the same gift ¹⁴  as he also gave us after believing ¹⁵  in the Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁶  who was I to hinder ¹⁷  God?” 11:18 When they heard this, ¹⁸  they ceased their objections ¹⁹  and praised ²⁰  God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance ²¹  that leads to life even to the Gentiles.” ²² 

Acts 14:27

14:27 When they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported ²³  all the things God ²⁴  had done with them, and that he had opened a door ²⁵  of faith for the Gentiles.

Acts 15:3

15:3 So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia ²⁶  and Samaria, they were relating at length ²⁷  the conversion of the Gentiles and bringing great joy ²⁸  to all the brothers.

Acts 15:8

15:8 And God, who knows the heart, ²⁹  has testified ³⁰  to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, ³¹ 

Acts 15:14

15:14 Simeon ³²  has explained ³³  how God first concerned himself ³⁴  to select ³⁵  from among the Gentiles ³⁶  a people for his name.

Isaiah 59:19

59:19 In the west, people respect ³⁷  the Lord’s reputation; ³⁸ 

in the east they recognize his splendor. ³⁹ 

For he comes like a rushing ⁴⁰  stream

driven on by wind sent from the Lord. ⁴¹ 

Ephesians 2:13-22

2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ⁴²  2:14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one ⁴³  and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, 2:15 when he nullified ⁴⁴  in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man ⁴⁵  out of two, ⁴⁶  thus making peace, 2:16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. ⁴⁷  2:17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 2:18 so that ⁴⁸  through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 2:19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 2:20 because you have been built ⁴⁹  on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, ⁵⁰  with Christ Jesus himself as ⁵¹  the cornerstone. ⁵²  2:21 In him ⁵³  the whole building, ⁵⁴  being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:5-8

3:5 Now this secret ⁵⁵  was not disclosed to people ⁵⁶  in former ⁵⁷  generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by ⁵⁸  the Spirit, 3:6 namely, that through the gospel ⁵⁹  the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members ⁶⁰  of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. 3:7 I became a servant of this gospel ⁶¹  according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by ⁶²  the exercise of his power. ⁶³  3:8 To me – less than the least of all the saints ⁶⁴  – this grace was given, ⁶⁵  to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ

[10:45]  ¹ tn Grk “And the.” 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.

[10:45]  ² tn Or “The Jewish Christians”; Grk “The believers from the circumcision.”

[10:45]  ³ sn The Jewish Christians who were with Peter were greatly astonished because they thought the promise of the Spirit would be limited only to those of Israel. God’s plan was taking on fresh dimensions even as it was a reflection of what the prophets had promised.

[10:45]  ⁴ tn Or “because.”

[10:45]  ⁵ tn That is, the gift consisting of the Holy Spirit. Here τοῦ πνεύματος (tou pneumato") is a genitive of apposition; the gift consists of the Spirit.

[10:45]  ⁶ sn The gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out. Compare the account in Acts 2, especially 2:33. Note also Joel 2:17-21 and Acts 11:15-18.

[11:15]  ⁷ tn Or “came down on.”

[11:15]  ⁸ tn The words “he did” are not in the Greek text but are implied. They form an ellipsis which must be supplied for the modern English reader. Some modern translations supply “it” rather than “he” because the gender of πνεῦμα (pneuma) in Greek is neuter, but there are sufficient NT contexts that use masculine pronouns to refer to the Spirit to justify the use of a masculine pronoun here in the translation.

[11:15]  ⁹ sn At the beginning is an allusion to Acts 2 and Pentecost. The beginning is a way to refer to the start of the period of the realization of Jesus’ promise in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8. Peter was arguing that God gave Gentiles the same benefits he gave the Jews at the start of their mission.

[11:16]  ¹⁰ sn The word of the Lord is a technical expression in OT literature, often referring to a divine prophetic utterance (e.g., Gen 15:1, Isa 1:10, Jonah 1:1). In the NT it occurs 15 times: 3 times as ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου (rJhma tou kuriou; here and in Luke 22:61, 1 Pet 1:25) and 12 times as λόγος τοῦ κυρίου (logo" tou kuriou; Acts 8:25; 13:44, 48, 49; 15:35, 36; 16:32; 19:10, 20; 1 Thess 1:8, 4:15; 2 Thess 3:1). As in the OT, this phrase focuses on the prophetic nature and divine origin of what has been said.

[11:16]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect verb ἔλεγεν (elegen) is taken as a customary imperfect.

[11:16]  ¹² sn John…Spirit. This remark repeats Acts 1:5.

[11:17]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ sn That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.

[11:17]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:17]  ¹⁷ 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.

[11:18]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “these things.”

[11:18]  ¹⁹ tn Or “became silent,” but this would create an apparent contradiction with the subsequent action of praising God. The point, in context, is that they ceased objecting to what Peter had done.

[11:18]  ²⁰ tn Or “glorified.”

[11:18]  ²¹ sn Here the summary phrase for responding to the gospel is the repentance that leads to life. Note how the presence of life is tied to the presence of the Spirit (cf. John 4:7-42; 7:37-39).

[11:18]  ²² sn In the Greek text the phrase even to the Gentiles is in an emphatic position.

[14:27]  ²³ tn Or “announced.”

[14:27]  ²⁴ sn Note that God is the subject of the activity. The outcome of this mission is seen as a confirmation of the mission to the Gentiles.

[14:27]  ²⁵ sn On the image of opening, or of the door, see 1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12; Col 4:3.

[15:3]  ²⁶ sn Phoenicia was an area along the Mediterranean coast north of Palestine in ancient Syria.

[15:3]  ²⁷ tn L&N 33.201 indicates that ἐκδιηγέομαι (ekdihgeomai) means to provide detailed information in a systematic manner, “to inform, to relate, to tell fully.” “Relating at length” conveys this effectively in the present context.

[15:3]  ²⁸ tn For ἐποίουν (epoioun) in this verse BDAG 839 s.v. ποιέω 2.c has “they brought joy to the members.”

[15:8]  ²⁹ sn The expression who knows the heart means “who knows what people think.”

[15:8]  ³⁰ tn Or “has borne witness.”

[15:8]  ³¹ sn By giving them…just as he did to us. The allusion is to the events of Acts 10-11, esp. 10:44-48 and Peter’s remarks in 11:15-18.

[15:14]  ³² sn Simeon is a form of the apostle Peter’s Aramaic name. James uses Peter’s “Jewish” name here.

[15:14]  ³³ tn Or “reported,” “described.”

[15:14]  ³⁴ tn BDAG 378 s.v. ἐπισκέπτομαι 3 translates this phrase in Acts 15:14, “God concerned himself about winning a people fr. among the nations.”

[15:14]  ³⁵ tn Grk “to take,” but in the sense of selecting or choosing (accompanied by the preposition ἐκ [ek] plus a genitive specifying the group selected from) see Heb 5:1; also BDAG 584 s.v. λαμβάνω 6.

[15:14]  ³⁶ sn In the Greek text the expression “from among the Gentiles” is in emphatic position.

[59:19]  ³⁷ tc Heb “fear.” A few medieval Hebrew mss read “see.”

[59:19]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and they fear from the west the name of the Lord.”

[59:19]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and from the rising of the sun his splendor.”

[59:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “narrow”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “pent-up.”

[59:19]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the wind of the Lord drives it on.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh) could be translated “breath” here (see 30:28).

[2:13]  ⁴² tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”

[2:14]  ⁴³ tn Grk “who made the both one.”

[2:15]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “rendered inoperative.” This is a difficult text to translate because it is not easy to find an English term which communicates well the essence of the author’s meaning, especially since legal terminology is involved. Many other translations use the term “abolish” (so NRSV, NASB, NIV), but this term implies complete destruction which is not the author’s meaning here. The verb καταργέω (katargew) can readily have the meaning “to cause someth. to lose its power or effectiveness” (BDAG 525 s.v. 2, where this passage is listed), and this meaning fits quite naturally here within the author’s legal mindset. A proper English term which communicates this well is “nullify” since this word carries the denotation of “making something legally null and void.” This is not, however, a common English word. An alternate term like “rendered inoperative [or ineffective]” is also accurate but fairly inelegant. For this reason, the translation retains the term “nullify”; it is the best choice of the available options, despite its problems.

[2:15]  ⁴⁵ tn In this context the author is not referring to a new individual, but instead to a new corporate entity united in Christ (cf. BDAG 497 s.v. καινός 3.b: “All the Christians together appear as κ. ἄνθρωπος Eph 2:15”). This is clear from the comparison made between the Gentiles and Israel in the immediately preceding verses and the assertion in v. 14 that Christ “made both groups into one.” This is a different metaphor than the “new man” of Eph 4:24; in that passage the “new man” refers to the new life a believer has through a relationship to Christ.

[2:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “in order to create the two into one new man.” Eph 2:14-16 is one sentence in Greek. A new sentence was started here in the translation for clarity since contemporary English is less tolerant of extended sentences.

[2:16]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “by killing the hostility in himself.”

[2:18]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “for.” BDAG gives the consecutive ὅτι (Joti) as a possible category of NT usage (BDAG 732 s.v. 5.c).

[2:20]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “having been built.”

[2:20]  ⁵⁰ sn Apostles and prophets. Because the prophets appear after the mention of the apostles and because they are linked together in 3:5 as recipients of revelation about the church, they are to be regarded not as Old Testament prophets, but as New Testament prophets.

[2:20]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “while Christ Jesus himself is” or “Christ Jesus himself being.”

[2:20]  ⁵² tn Or perhaps “capstone” (NAB). The meaning of ἀκρογωνιαῖος (akrogwniaio") is greatly debated. The meaning “capstone” is proposed by J. Jeremias (TDNT 1:792), but the most important text for this meaning (T. Sol. 22:7-23:4) is late and possibly not even an appropriate parallel. The only place ἀκρογωνιαῖος is used in the LXX is Isa 28:16, and there it clearly refers to a cornerstone that is part of a foundation. Furthermore, the imagery in this context has the building growing off the cornerstone upward, whereas if Christ were the capstone, he would not assume his position until the building was finished, which vv. 21-22 argue against.

[2:21]  ⁵³ tn Grk “in whom” (v. 21 is a relative clause, subordinate to v. 20).

[2:21]  ⁵⁴ tc Although several important witnesses (א¹ A C P 6 81 326 1739^c 1881) have πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή (pasa Jh oikodomh), instead of πᾶσα οἰκοδομή (the reading of א* B D F G Ψ 33 1739* Ï), the article is almost surely a scribal addition intended to clarify the meaning of the text, for with the article the meaning is unambiguously “the whole building.”

[3:5]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “which.” Verse 5 is technically a relative clause, subordinate to the thought of v. 4.

[3:5]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “the sons of men” (a Semitic idiom referring to human beings, hence, “people”).

[3:5]  ⁵⁷ tn Grk “other.”

[3:5]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “in.”

[3:6]  ⁵⁹ sn The phrase through the gospel is placed last in the sentence in Greek for emphasis. It has been moved forward for clarity.

[3:6]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “and fellow members.”

[3:7]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “of which I was made a minister,” “of which I became a servant.”

[3:7]  ⁶² tn Grk “according to.”

[3:7]  ⁶³ sn On the exercise of his power see 1:19-20.

[3:8]  ⁶⁴ sn In Pauline writings saints means any true believer. Thus for Paul to view himself as less than the least of all the saints is to view himself as the most unworthy object of Christ’s redemption.

[3:8]  ⁶⁵ sn The parallel phrases to proclaim and to enlighten which follow indicate why God’s grace was manifested to Paul. Grace was not something just to be received, but to be shared with others (cf. Acts 13:47).