Acts 17:29-34

17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ¹  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ²  made by human ³  skill ⁴  and imagination. ⁵  17:30 Therefore, although God has overlooked ⁶  such times of ignorance, ⁷  he now commands all people ⁸  everywhere to repent, ⁹  17:31 because he has set ¹⁰  a day on which he is going to judge the world ¹¹  in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, ¹²  having provided proof to everyone by raising ¹³  him from the dead.”

17:32 Now when they heard about ¹⁴  the resurrection from the dead, some began to scoff, ¹⁵  but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 17:33 So Paul left the Areopagus. ¹⁶  17:34 But some people ¹⁷  joined him ¹⁸  and believed. Among them ¹⁹  were Dionysius, who was a member of the Areopagus, ²⁰  a woman ²¹  named Damaris, and others with them.

[17:29]  ¹ tn Or “the divine being.” BDAG 446 s.v. θεῖος 1.b has “divine being, divinity” here.

[17:29]  ² tn Or “a likeness.” Again idolatry is directly attacked as an affront to God and a devaluation of him.

[17:29]  ³ tn Grk “by the skill and imagination of man,” but ἀνθρώπου (anqrwpou) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[17:29]  ⁴ tn Or “craftsmanship” (cf. BDAG 1001 s.v. τέχνη).

[17:29]  ⁵ tn Or “thought.” BDAG 336 s.v. ἐνθύμησις has “thought, reflection, idea” as the category of meaning here, but in terms of creativity (as in the context) the imaginative faculty is in view.

[17:30]  ⁶ tn Or “has deliberately paid no attention to.”

[17:30]  ⁷ tn Or “times when people did not know.”

[17:30]  ⁸ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[17:30]  ⁹ sn He now commands all people everywhere to repent. God was now asking all mankind to turn to him. No nation or race was excluded.

[17:31]  ¹⁰ tn Or “fixed.”

[17:31]  ¹¹ sn The world refers to the whole inhabited earth.

[17:31]  ¹² tn Or “appointed.” BDAG 723 s.v. ὁρίζω 2.b has “of persons appoint, designate, declare: God judges the world ἐν ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὥρισεν through a man whom he has appointed Ac 17:31.”

[17:31]  ¹³ tn The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") indicates means here.

[17:32]  ¹⁴ tn The participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") has been taken temporally.

[17:32]  ¹⁵ tn L&N 33.408 has “some scoffed (at him) Ac 17:32” for ἐχλεύαζον (ecleuazon) here; the imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive imperfect (“began to scoff”).

[17:33]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “left out of their midst”; the referent (the Areopagus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:34]  ¹⁷ tn Although the Greek word here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which normally refers to males, husbands, etc., in this particular context it must have a generic force similar to that of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), since “a woman named Damaris” is mentioned specifically as being part of this group (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. ἀνήρ 1.a).

[17:34]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “joining him, believed.” The participle κολληθέντες (kollhqente") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. On the use of this verb in Acts, see 5:13; 8:29; 9:26; 10:28.

[17:34]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “among whom.” Due to the length of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (“whom”) has been translated as a third person plural pronoun (“them”) and a new sentence begun in the translation.

[17:34]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the Areopagite” (a member of the council of the Areopagus). The noun “Areopagite” is not in common usage today in English. It is clearer to use a descriptive phrase “a member of the Areopagus” (L&N 11.82). However, this phrase alone can be misleading in English: “Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, and a woman named Damaris” could be understood to refer to three people (Dionysius, an unnamed member of the Areopagus, and Damaris) rather than only two. Converting the descriptive phrase to a relative clause in English (“who was a member of the Areopagus”) removes the ambiguity.

[17:34]  ²¹ tn Grk “and a woman”; but this καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.