Acts 13:23

13:23 From the descendants ¹  of this man ²  God brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, just as he promised. ³ 

Acts 7:6

7:6 But God spoke as follows: ‘Your ⁴  descendants will be foreigners ⁵  in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years. ⁶ 

Acts 3:25

3:25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, ⁷  saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants ⁸  all the nations ⁹  of the earth will be blessed.’ ¹⁰ 

Acts 7:5

7:5 He ¹¹  did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, ¹²  not even a foot of ground, ¹³  yet God ¹⁴  promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, ¹⁵  even though Abraham ¹⁶  as yet had no child.

[13:23]  ¹ tn Or “From the offspring”; Grk “From the seed.”

[13:23]  ² sn The phrase this man is in emphatic position in the Greek text.

[13:23]  ³ tn Grk “according to [his] promise.” The comparative clause “just as he promised” is less awkward in English.

[7:6]  ⁴ tn Grk “that his”; the discourse switches from indirect to direct with the following verbs. For consistency the entire quotation is treated as second person direct discourse in the translation.

[7:6]  ⁵ tn Or “will be strangers,” that is, one who lives as a noncitizen of a foreign country.

[7:6]  ⁶ sn A quotation from Gen 15:13. Exod 12:40 specifies the sojourn as 430 years.

[3:25]  ⁷ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[3:25]  ⁸ tn Or “in your offspring”; Grk “in your seed.”

[3:25]  ⁹ tn Or “families.” The Greek word πατριά (patria) can indicate persons of succeeding generations who are related by birth (“lineage,” “family”) but it can also indicate a relatively large unit of people who make up a sociopolitical group and who share a presumed biological descent. In many contexts πατριά is very similar to ἔθνος (eqnos) and λαός (laos). In light of the context of the OT quotation, it is better to translate πατριά as “nations” here.

[3:25]  ¹⁰ sn A quotation from Gen 22:18.

[7:5]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:5]  ¹¹ tn Grk “He did not give him an inheritance in it.” This could be understood to mean that God did not give something else to Abraham as an inheritance while he was living there. The point of the text is that God did not give any of the land to him as an inheritance, and the translation makes this clear.

[7:5]  ¹² tn Grk “a step of a foot” (cf. Deut 2:5).

[7:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:5]  ¹⁴ sn An allusion to Gen 12:7; 13:15; 15:2, 18; 17:8; 24:7; 48:4. On the theological importance of the promise and to his descendants after him, see Rom 4 and Gal 3.

[7:5]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.