Acts 16:12

16:12 and from there to Philippi, ¹  which is a leading city of that district ²  of Macedonia, ³  a Roman colony. ⁴  We stayed in this city for some days.

Acts 17:6

17:6 When they did not find them, they dragged ⁵  Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, ⁶  screaming, “These people who have stirred up trouble ⁷  throughout the world ⁸  have come here too,

Acts 19:1

Disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus

19:1 While ⁹  Apollos was in Corinth, ¹⁰  Paul went through the inland ¹¹  regions ¹²  and came to Ephesus. ¹³  He ¹⁴  found some disciples there ¹⁵ 

Acts 27:1

Paul and Company Sail for Rome

27:1 When it was decided we ¹⁶  would sail to Italy, ¹⁷  they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion ¹⁸  of the Augustan Cohort ¹⁹  named Julius.

[16:12]  ¹ map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

[16:12]  ² tc ‡ Or perhaps, “a city in the first district” (there are a number of textual variants). L&N 1.85 follow the text of UBS⁴ and NA²⁷ here: “In Ac 16:12…the Greek New Testament published by the United Bible Societies has adopted a conjectural emendation, since the more traditional text, πρώτη τῆς μερίδος, literally ‘first of the district,’ is not only misleading in meaning but does not reflect the historical fact that Philippi was a city in one of the four districts of Macedonia but was not a capital city.” The original text is probably πρώτη τῆς μερίδος (prwth th" merido", “first of that district”) as found in Ì⁷⁴ א A C Ψ 33^vid 36 81 323 945 1175 1891 pc. This has traditionally been translated to give the impression that Philippi was the capital city of the district, but it does not necessarily have to be translated this way. The translation of the article before μερίδος as “that” acknowledges that there were other districts in the province of Macedonia.

[16:12]  ³ sn Macedonia was the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.

[16:12]  ⁴ sn A Roman colony was a city whose residents were regarded as Roman citizens, since such cities were originally colonized by citizens of Rome. From Troas to Philippi was 130 mi (208 km).

[17:6]  ⁵ tn See BDAG 977-78 s.v. σύρω on this verb. It was used in everyday speech of dragging in fish by a net, or dragging away someone’s (presumably) dead body (Paul in Acts 14:19).

[17:6]  ⁶ tn L&N 37.93 defines πολιτάρχης (politarch") as “a public official responsible for administrative matters within a town or city and a member of the ruling council of such a political unit – ‘city official’” (see also BDAG 845 s.v.).

[17:6]  ⁷ tn Or “rebellion.” BDAG 72 s.v. ἀναστατόω has “disturb, trouble, upset,” but in light of the references in the following verse to political insurrection, “stirred up rebellion” would also be appropriate.

[17:6]  ⁸ tn Or “the empire.” This was a way of referring to the Roman empire (BDAG 699 s.v. οἰκουμένη 2.b).

[19:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “It happened that while.” 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.

[19:1]  ¹⁰ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[19:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “interior.”

[19:1]  ¹² tn BDAG 92 s.v. ἀνωτερικός has “upper τὰ ἀ. μέρη the upper (i.e. inland) country, the interior Ac 19:1.”

[19:1]  ¹³ map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.

[19:1]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and found.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the sequencing with the following verse the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

[19:1]  ¹⁵ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

[27:1]  ¹³ sn The last “we” section in Acts begins here and extends to 28:16 (the previous one ended at 21:18).

[27:1]  ¹⁴ sn Sail to Italy. This voyage with its difficulty serves to show how God protected Paul on his long journey to Rome. From the perspective of someone in Palestine, this may well picture “the end of the earth” quite literally (cf. Acts 1:8).

[27:1]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[27:1]  ¹⁶ tn According to BDAG 917 s.v. σεβαστός, “In σπεῖρα Σεβαστή 27:1 (cp. OGI 421) Σεβαστή is likew. an exact transl. of Lat. Augusta, an honorary title freq. given to auxiliary troops (Ptolem. renders it Σεβαστή in connection w. three legions that bore it: 2, 3, 30; 2, 9, 18; 4, 3, 30) imperial cohort.” According to W. Foerster (TDNT 7:175), “In Ac. 27:1 the σπεῖρα Σεβαστή is an expression also found elsewhere for ‘auxiliary troops.’” In no case would this refer to a special imperial bodyguard, and to translate “imperial regiment” or “imperial cohort” might give this impression. There is some archaeological evidence for a Cohors Augusta I stationed in Syria during the time of Augustus, but whether this is the same unit is very debatable.