Acts 11:22-24

11:22 A report ¹  about them came to the attention ²  of the church in Jerusalem, ³  and they sent Barnabas ⁴  to Antioch. ⁵  11:23 When ⁶  he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true ⁷  to the Lord with devoted hearts, ⁸  11:24 because he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a significant number of people ⁹  were brought to the Lord.

Acts 14:26-27

14:26 From there they sailed back to Antioch, ¹⁰  where they had been commended ¹¹  to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. ¹²  14:27 When they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported ¹³  all the things God ¹⁴  had done with them, and that he had opened a door ¹⁵  of faith for the Gentiles.

[11:22]  ¹ tn Grk “Word.”

[11:22]  ² tn Grk “was heard in the ears,” an idiom. L&N 24.67 states that the idiom means “to hear in secret” (which it certainly does in Matt 10:27), but secrecy does not seem to be part of the context here, and there is no particular reason to suggest the report was made in secret.

[11:22]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:22]  ⁴ tc ‡ Most mss read the infinitive “to travel” after “Barnabas.” διελθεῖν (dielqein) is found before ἕως (Jews) in D E Ψ 33 Ï and some versional mss. It is lacking in Ì⁷⁴ א A B 81 1739 pc and some versional mss. Although the infinitive with ἕως fits Lukan style, it has the appearance of a scribal clarification. The infinitive has the earmarks of a Western expansion on the text and thus is unlikely to be original. NA²⁷ has the infinitive in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[11:22]  ⁵ sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19. Again the Jerusalem church exercised an oversight role.

[11:23]  ⁶ tn Grk “Antioch, who when.” The relative pronoun was omitted 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.

[11:23]  ⁷ tn BDAG 883 s.v. προσμένω 1.a.β has “remain true to the Lord” for προσμένειν (prosmenein) in this verse.

[11:23]  ⁸ tn Grk “with purpose of heart”; BDAG 869 s.v. πρόθεσις 2.a translates this phrase “purpose of heart, i.e. devotion” here.

[11:24]  ⁹ tn Grk “a significant crowd.”

[14:26]  ¹⁰ sn Antioch was the city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia) from which Paul’s first missionary journey began (see Acts 13:1-4). That first missionary journey ends here, after covering some 1,400 mi (2,240 km).

[14:26]  ¹¹ tn Or “committed.” BDAG 762 s.v. παραδίδωμι 2 gives “commended to the grace of God for the work 14:26” as the meaning for this phrase, although “give over” and “commit” are listed as alternative meanings for this category.

[14:26]  ¹² tn BDAG 829 s.v. πληρόω 5 has “to bring to completion an activity in which one has been involved from its beginning, complete, finish” as meanings for this category. The ministry to which they were commissioned ends with a note of success.

[14:27]  ¹³ tn Or “announced.”

[14:27]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ sn On the image of opening, or of the door, see 1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12; Col 4:3.