Acts 11:23

11:23 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

13:48 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

15:23 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.