Acts 18:8-11

18:8 Crispus, the president of the synagogue, ¹  believed in the Lord together with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians who heard about it ²  believed and were baptized. 18:9 The Lord said to Paul by a vision ³  in the night, ⁴  “Do not be afraid, ⁵  but speak and do not be silent, 18:10 because I am with you, and no one will assault ⁶  you to harm ⁷  you, because I have many people in this city.” 18:11 So he stayed there ⁸  a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. ⁹ 

[18:8]  ¹ tn That is, “the official in charge of the synagogue”; ἀρχισυνάγωγος (arcisunagwgo") refers to the “leader/president of a synagogue” (so BDAG 139 s.v. and L&N 53.93).

[18:8]  ² tn Or “who heard him,” or “who heard Paul.” The ambiguity here results from the tendency of Greek to omit direct objects, which must be supplied from the context. The problem is that no less than three different ones may be supplied here: (1) “him,” referring to Crispus, but this is not likely because there is no indication in the context that Crispus began to speak out about the Lord; this is certainly possible and even likely, but more than the text here affirms; (2) “Paul,” who had been speaking in the synagogue and presumably, now that he had moved to Titius Justus’ house, continued speaking to the Gentiles; or (3) “about it,” that is, the Corinthians who heard about Crispus’ conversion became believers. In the immediate context this last is most probable, since the two incidents are juxtaposed. Other, less obvious direct objects could also be supplied, such as “heard the word of God,” “heard the word of the Lord,” etc., but none of these are obvious in the immediate context.

[18:9]  ³ sn Frequently in Acts such a vision will tell the reader where events are headed. See Acts 10:9-16 and 16:9-10 for other accounts of visions.

[18:9]  ⁴ tn BDAG 682 s.v. νύξ 1.c has “W. prep. ἐν ν. at night, in the night…Ac 18:9.”

[18:9]  ⁵ tn The present imperative here (with negation) is used (as it normally is) of a general condition (BDF §335).

[18:10]  ⁶ tn BDAG 384 s.v. ἐπιτίθημι 2 has “to set upon, attack, lay a hand on” here, but “assault” is a contemporary English equivalent very close to the meaning of the original.

[18:10]  ⁷ tn Or “injure.”

[18:11]  ⁸ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[18:11]  ⁹ tn See BDAG 326-27 s.v. ἐν 1.d. However, it is also possible that ἐν (en) followed by the dative here stands for the ordinary dative (“to them”).