Acts 11:23
Context11:23 When 1 he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true 2 to the Lord with devoted hearts, 3
Acts 13:48
Context13:48 When the Gentiles heard this, they began to rejoice 4 and praise 5 the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed for eternal life 6 believed.
Acts 15:23
Context15:23 They sent this letter with them: 7
From the apostles 8 and elders, your brothers, 9 to the Gentile brothers and sisters 10 in Antioch, 11 Syria, 12 and Cilicia, greetings!


[11:23] 1 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] 2 tn BDAG 883 s.v. προσμένω 1.a.β has “remain true to the Lord” for προσμένειν (prosmenein) in this verse.
[11:23] 3 tn Grk “with purpose of heart”; BDAG 869 s.v. πρόθεσις 2.a translates this phrase “purpose of heart, i.e. devotion” here.
[13:48] 4 tn The imperfect verb ἔχαιρον (ecairon) and the following ἐδόξαζον (edoxazon) are translated as ingressive imperfects.
[13:48] 5 tn Or “glorify.” Although “honor” is given by BDAG 258 s.v. δοξάζω as a translation, it would be misleading here, because the meaning is “to honor in the sense of attributing worth to something,” while in contemporary English usage one speaks of “honoring” a contract in the sense of keeping its stipulations. It is not a synonym for “obey” in this context (“obey the word of the Lord”), but that is how many English readers would understand it.
[13:48] 6 sn Note the contrast to v. 46 in regard to eternal life.
[15:23] 7 tn Grk “writing by their hand” (an idiom for sending a letter).
[15:23] 8 tn Grk “The apostles.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
[15:23] 9 tn Grk “brothers,” but “your” is supplied to specify the relationship, since without it “brothers” could be understood as vocative in English.
[15:23] 10 tn Grk “to the brothers who are from the Gentiles.”
[15:23] 11 sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia).
[15:23] 12 tn Grk “and Syria,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.