Acts 16:15

16:15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, ¹  “If ²  you consider me to be a believer in the Lord, ³  come and stay in my house.” And she persuaded ⁴  us.

Acts 16:34

16:34 The jailer ⁵  brought them into his house and set food ⁶  before them, and he rejoiced greatly ⁷  that he had come to believe ⁸  in God, together with his entire household. ⁹ 

[16:15]  ¹ tn Grk “urged us, saying.” The participle λέγουσα (legousa) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[16:15]  ² tn This is a first class condition in Greek, with the statement presented as real or true for the sake of the argument.

[16:15]  ³ tn Or “faithful to the Lord.” BDAG 821 s.v. πίστος 2 states concerning this verse, “Of one who confesses the Christian faith believing or a believer in the Lord, in Christ, in God πιστ. τῷ κυρίῳ Ac 16:15.” L&N 11.17 has “one who is included among the faithful followers of Christ – ‘believer, Christian, follower.’”

[16:15]  ⁴ tn Although BDAG 759 s.v. παραβιάζομαι has “urge strongly, prevail upon,” in contemporary English “persuade” is a more frequently used synonym for “prevail upon.”

[16:34]  ⁵ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the jailer) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:34]  ⁶ tn Grk “placed [food] on the table” (a figurative expression). Since the actual word for food is not specified, it would also be possible to translate “set a meal before them,” but since this is taking place in the middle of the night, the preparations necessary for a full meal would probably not have been made. More likely Paul and Silas were given whatever was on hand that needed little or no preparation.

[16:34]  ⁷ tn Or “he was overjoyed.”

[16:34]  ⁸ tn The translation “come to believe” reflects more of the resultative nuance of the perfect tense here.

[16:34]  ⁹ tn The phrase “together with his entire household” is placed at the end of the English sentence so that it refers to both the rejoicing and the belief. A formal equivalence translation would have “and he rejoiced greatly with his entire household that he had come to believe in God,” but the reference to the entire household being baptized in v. 33 presumes that all in the household believed.