Acts 14:27

14:27 When they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported ¹  all the things God ²  had done with them, and that he had opened a door ³  of faith for the Gentiles.

Acts 16:14

16:14 A ⁴  woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth ⁵  from the city of Thyatira, ⁶  a God-fearing woman, listened to us. ⁷  The Lord opened her heart to respond ⁸  to what Paul was saying.

Acts 17:11

17:11 These Jews ⁹  were more open-minded ¹⁰  than those in Thessalonica, ¹¹  for they eagerly ¹²  received ¹³  the message, examining ¹⁴  the scriptures carefully every day ¹⁵  to see if these things were so.

Acts 27:41

27:41 But they encountered a patch of crosscurrents ¹⁶  and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck fast and could not be moved, but the stern was being broken up by the force ¹⁷  of the waves.

[14:27]  ¹ tn Or “announced.”

[14:27]  ² sn Note that God is the subject of the activity. The outcome of this mission is seen as a confirmation of the mission to the Gentiles.

[14:27]  ³ sn On the image of opening, or of the door, see 1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12; Col 4:3.

[16:14]  ⁴ tn Grk “And a.” 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.

[16:14]  ⁵ tn On the term translated “a dealer in purple cloth” see BDAG 855 s.v. πορφυρόπωλις.

[16:14]  ⁶ sn Thyatira was a city in the province of Lydia in Asia Minor.

[16:14]  ⁷ tn The words “to us” 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.

[16:14]  ⁸ tn Although BDAG 880 s.v. προσέχω 2.b gives the meaning “pay attention to” here, this could be misunderstood by the modern English reader to mean merely listening intently. The following context, however, indicates that Lydia responded positively to Paul’s message, so the verb here was translated “to respond.”

[17:11]  ⁷ tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:11]  ⁸ tn Or “more willing to learn.” L&N 27.48 and BDAG 404 s.v. εὐγενής 2 both use the term “open-minded” here. The point is that they were more receptive to Paul’s message.

[17:11]  ⁹ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

[17:11]  ¹⁰ tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”

[17:11]  ¹¹ tn Grk “who received.” Here the relative pronoun (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“they”) preceded by a semicolon, which is less awkward in contemporary English than a relative clause at this point.

[17:11]  ¹² tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.

[17:11]  ¹³ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

[27:41]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “fell upon a place of two seas.” The most common explanation for this term is that it refers to a reef or sandbar with the sea on both sides, as noted in BDAG 245 s.v. διθάλασσος: the “τόπος δ. Ac 27:41 is a semantic unit signifying a point (of land jutting out with water on both sides).” However, Greek had terms for a “sandbank” (θῖς [qis], ταινία [tainia]), a “reef” (ἑρμα [Jerma]), “strait” (στενόν [stenon]), “promontory” (ἀρωτήρον [arwthron]), and other nautical hazards, none of which are used by the author here. NEB here translates τόπον διθάλασσον (topon diqalasson) as “cross-currents,” a proposal close to that advanced by J. M. Gilchrist, “The Historicity of Paul’s Shipwreck,” JSNT 61 (1996): 29-51, who suggests the meaning is “a patch of cross-seas,” where the waves are set at an angle to the wind, a particular hazard for sailors. Thus the term most likely refers to some sort of adverse sea conditions rather than a topographical feature like a reef or sandbar.

[27:41]  ¹¹ tn Or “violence” (BDAG 175 s.v. βία a).