Acts 11:22-30

Context
11:22 A report¹ about them came to the attention² of the church in Jerusalem,³ and they sent Barnabas⁴ to Antioch.⁵ 11:23 When⁶ he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true⁷ 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 people⁹ were brought to the Lord. 11:25 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to look for Saul, 11:26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.¹⁰ So¹¹ for a whole year Barnabas and Saul¹² met with the church and taught a significant number of people.¹³ Now it was in Antioch¹⁴ that the disciples were first called Christians.¹⁵

Famine Relief for Judea

11:27 At that time¹⁶ some¹⁷ prophets¹⁸ came down¹⁹ from Jerusalem²⁰ to Antioch.²¹ 11:28 One of them, named Agabus, got up²² and predicted²³ by the Spirit that a severe²⁴ famine²⁵ was about to come over the whole inhabited world.²⁶ (This²⁷ took place during the reign of Claudius.)²⁸ 11:29 So the disciples, each in accordance with his financial ability,²⁹ decided³⁰ to send relief³¹ to the brothers living in Judea. 11:30 They did so,³² sending their financial aid³³ to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

[11:22] ¹tn Grk “Word.”

[11:22] ²tn 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] ³map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:22] ⁴tc ‡ 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] ⁵sn 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] ⁶tn 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] ⁷tn BDAG 883 s.v. προσμένω 1.a.β has “remain true to the Lord” for προσμένειν (prosmenein) in this verse.

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

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

[11:26] ¹⁰sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.

[11:26] ¹¹tn Grk “So it happened that” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[11:26] ¹²tn Grk “year they”; the referents (Barnabas and Saul) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:26] ¹³tn Grk “a significant crowd.”

[11:26] ¹⁴sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.

[11:26] ¹⁵sn The term Christians appears only here, in Acts 26:28, and 1 Pet 4:16 in the NT.

[11:27] ¹⁶tn Grk “In these days,” but the dative generally indicates a specific time.

[11:27] ¹⁷tn The word “some” is not in the Greek text, but is usually used in English when an unspecified number is mentioned.

[11:27] ¹⁸sn Prophets are mentioned only here and in 13:1 and 21:10 in Acts.

[11:27] ¹⁹sn Came down from Jerusalem. Antioch in Syria lies due north of Jerusalem. In Western languages it is common to speak of north as “up” and south as “down,” but the NT maintains the Hebrew idiom which speaks of any direction away from Jerusalem as down (since Mount Zion was thought of in terms of altitude).

[11:27] ²⁰map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:27] ²¹sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.

[11:28] ²²tn Grk “getting up, predicted.” The participle ἀναστάς (anasta") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[11:28] ²³tn Or “made clear”; Grk “indicated beforehand” (BDAG 920 s.v. σημαίνω 2).

[11:28] ²⁴tn Grk “great.”

[11:28] ²⁵sn This famine is one of the firmly fixed dates in Acts. It took place from a.d. 45-48. The events described in chap. 11 of Acts occurred during the early part of that period.

[11:28] ²⁶tn Or “whole Roman Empire.” While the word οἰκουμένη (oikoumenh) does occasionally refer specifically to the Roman Empire, BDAG 699 s.v. οἰκουνένη 2 does not list this passage (only Acts 24:5 and 17:6).

[11:28] ²⁷tn Grk “world, which.” The relative pronoun (“which”) was replaced by the demonstrative pronoun “this” 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.

[11:28] ²⁸sn This is best taken as a parenthetical note by the author. Claudius was the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, known as Claudius, who ruled from a.d. 41-54.

[11:29] ²⁹tn So BDAG 410 s.v. εὐπορέω.

[11:29] ³⁰tn Or “determined,” “resolved.”

[11:29] ³¹tn Grk “to send [something] for a ministry,” but today it is common to speak of sending relief for victims of natural disasters.

[11:30] ³²tn Grk “Judea, which they did.” 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.

[11:30] ³³tn The words “their financial aid” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.