Acts 11:25-27

11:25 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to look for Saul, 11:26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. ¹  So ²  for a whole year Barnabas and Saul ³  met with the church and taught a significant number of people. ⁴  Now it was in Antioch ⁵  that the disciples were first called Christians. ⁶ 

Famine Relief for Judea

11:27 At that time ⁷  some ⁸  prophets ⁹  came down ¹⁰  from Jerusalem ¹¹  to Antioch. ¹² 

Acts 15:35

15:35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, ¹³  teaching and proclaiming (along with many others) ¹⁴  the word of the Lord. ¹⁵ 

Romans 12:6-7

12:6 And we have different gifts ¹⁶  according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith. 12:7 If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach;

Romans 12:1

Consecration of the Believer’s Life

12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ¹⁷  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ¹⁸  – which is your reasonable service.

Colossians 1:28-29

1:28 We proclaim him by instructing ¹⁹  and teaching ²⁰  all people ²¹  with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature ²²  in Christ. 1:29 Toward this goal ²³  I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully ²⁴  works in me.

Colossians 1:24-25

1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ²⁵  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ²⁶  the word of God,

Ephesians 4:11

4:11 It was he ²⁷  who gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, ²⁸ 

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ²⁹  urge you to live ³⁰  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ³¹ 

Ephesians 5:20

5:20 always giving thanks to God the Father for each other ³²  in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

[11:26]  ¹ sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.

[11:26]  ² tn 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]  ³ tn Grk “year they”; the referents (Barnabas and Saul) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:26]  ⁴ tn Grk “a significant crowd.”

[11:26]  ⁵ sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.

[11:26]  ⁶ sn The term Christians appears only here, in Acts 26:28, and 1 Pet 4:16 in the NT.

[11:27]  ⁷ tn Grk “In these days,” but the dative generally indicates a specific time.

[11:27]  ⁸ tn The word “some” is not in the Greek text, but is usually used in English when an unspecified number is mentioned.

[11:27]  ⁹ sn Prophets are mentioned only here and in 13:1 and 21:10 in Acts.

[11:27]  ¹⁰ sn 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]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:27]  ¹² sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.

[15:35]  ¹³ sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia).

[15:35]  ¹⁴ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[15:35]  ¹⁵ 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; Luke 22:61, Acts 11:16, 1 Pet 1:25) and 12 times as λόγος τοῦ κυρίου (logo" tou kuriou; here and in v. 36; Acts 8:25; 13:44, 48, 49; 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.

[12:6]  ¹⁶ tn This word comes from the same root as “grace” in the following clause; it means “things graciously given,” “grace-gifts.”

[12:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[12:1]  ¹⁸ tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.

[1:28]  ¹⁹ tn Or “admonishing,” or “warning.” BDAG 679 s.v. νουθετέω states, “to counsel about avoidance or cessation of an improper course of conduct,, admonish, warn, instruct.” After the participle νουθετοῦντες (nouqetounte", “instructing”) the words πάντα ἄνθρωπον (panta anqrwpon, “all men”) occur in the Greek text, but since the same phrase appears again after διδάσκοντες (didaskontes) it was omitted in translation to avoid redundancy in English.

[1:28]  ²⁰ tn The two participles “instructing” (νουθετοῦντες, nouqetounte") and “teaching” (διδάσκοντες, didaskonte") are translated as participles of means (“by”) related to the finite verb “we proclaim” (καταγγέλλομεν, katangellomen).

[1:28]  ²¹ tn Here ἄνθρωπον (anqrwpon) is twice translated as a generic (“people” and “person”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.

[1:28]  ²² tn Since Paul’s focus is on the present experience of the Colossians, “mature” is a better translation of τέλειον (teleion) than “perfect,” since the latter implies a future, eschatological focus.

[1:29]  ²³ tn The Greek phrase εἴς ὅ (eis Jo, “toward which”) implies “movement toward a goal” and has been rendered by the English phrase “Toward this goal.”

[1:29]  ²⁴ tn The prepositional phrase ἐν δυνάμει (en dunamei) seems to be functioning adverbially, related to the participle, and has therefore been translated “powerfully.”

[1:25]  ²⁵ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

[1:25]  ²⁶ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

[4:11]  ²⁷ tn The emphasis on Christ is continued through the use of the intensive pronoun, αὐτός (autos), and is rendered in English as “it was he” as this seems to lay emphasis on the “he.”

[4:11]  ²⁸ sn Some interpreters have understood the phrase pastors and teachers to refer to one and the same group. This would mean that all pastors are teachers and that all teachers are pastors. This position is often taken because it is recognized that both nouns (i.e., pastors and teachers) are governed by one article in Greek. But because the nouns are plural, it is extremely unlikely that they refer to the same group, but only that the author is linking them closely together. It is better to regard the pastors as a subset of teachers. In other words, all pastors are teachers, but not all teachers are pastors. See ExSyn 284.

[4:1]  ²⁹ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ³⁰ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ³¹ sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

[5:20]  ³² tn Grk “for all.” The form “all” can be either neuter or masculine.