Acts 2:22

2:22 “Men of Israel, ¹  listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, ²  wonders, and miraculous signs ³  that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know –

Acts 3:22

3:22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must obey ⁴  him in everything he tells you. ⁵ 

Acts 3:25

3:25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, ⁶  saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants ⁷  all the nations ⁸  of the earth will be blessed.’ ⁹ 

Acts 7:2

7:2 So he replied, ¹⁰  “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our forefather ¹¹  Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

Acts 7:35

7:35 This same ¹²  Moses they had rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’ ¹³  God sent as both ruler and deliverer ¹⁴  through the hand of the angel ¹⁵  who appeared to him in the bush.

Acts 7:42

7:42 But God turned away from them and gave them over ¹⁶  to worship the host ¹⁷  of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices ¹⁸  forty years in the wilderness, was it, ¹⁹  house of Israel?

Acts 7:45

7:45 Our ²⁰  ancestors ²¹  received possession of it and brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors, ²²  until the time ²³  of David.

Acts 10:28

10:28 He said to them, “You know that ²⁴  it is unlawful ²⁵  for a Jew ²⁶  to associate with or visit a Gentile, ²⁷  yet God has shown me that I should call no person ²⁸  defiled or ritually unclean. ²⁹ 

Acts 11:17

11:17 Therefore if God ³⁰  gave them the same gift ³¹  as he also gave us after believing ³²  in the Lord Jesus Christ, ³³  who was I to hinder ³⁴  God?”

Acts 13:17

13:17 The God of this people Israel ³⁵  chose our ancestors ³⁶  and made the people great ³⁷  during their stay as foreigners ³⁸  in the country ³⁹  of Egypt, and with uplifted arm ⁴⁰  he led them out of it.

Acts 15:12

15:12 The whole group kept quiet ⁴¹  and listened to Barnabas and Paul while they explained all the miraculous signs ⁴²  and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

Acts 22:14

22:14 Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors ⁴³  has already chosen ⁴⁴  you to know his will, to see ⁴⁵  the Righteous One, ⁴⁶  and to hear a command ⁴⁷  from his mouth,

Acts 23:3

23:3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! ⁴⁸  Do ⁴⁹  you sit there judging me according to the law, ⁵⁰  and in violation of the law ⁵¹  you order me to be struck?”

[2:22]  ¹ tn Or “Israelite men,” although this is less natural English. The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it is conceivable that this is a generic usage, although it can also be argued that Peter’s remarks were addressed primarily to the men present, even if women were there.

[2:22]  ² tn Or “miraculous deeds.”

[2:22]  ³ tn Again, the context indicates the miraculous nature of these signs, and this is specified in the translation.

[3:22]  ⁴ tn Grk “hear,” but the idea of “hear and obey” or simply “obey” is frequently contained in the Greek verb ἀκούω (akouw; see L&N 36.14) and the following context (v. 23) makes it clear that failure to “obey” the words of this “prophet like Moses” will result in complete destruction.

[3:22]  ⁵ sn A quotation from Deut 18:15. By quoting Deut 18:15 Peter declared that Jesus was the eschatological “prophet like [Moses]” mentioned in that passage, who reveals the plan of God and the way of God.

[3:25]  ⁷ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[3:25]  ⁸ tn Or “in your offspring”; Grk “in your seed.”

[3:25]  ⁹ tn Or “families.” The Greek word πατριά (patria) can indicate persons of succeeding generations who are related by birth (“lineage,” “family”) but it can also indicate a relatively large unit of people who make up a sociopolitical group and who share a presumed biological descent. In many contexts πατριά is very similar to ἔθνος (eqnos) and λαός (laos). In light of the context of the OT quotation, it is better to translate πατριά as “nations” here.

[3:25]  ¹⁰ sn A quotation from Gen 22:18.

[7:2]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “said.”

[7:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “ancestor”; Grk “father.”

[7:35]  ¹³ sn This same. The reference to “this one” occurs five times in this speech. It is the way the other speeches in Acts refer to Jesus (e.g., Acts 2:23).

[7:35]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Exod 2:14 (see Acts 7:27). God saw Moses very differently than the people of the nation did. The reference to a ruler and a judge suggests that Stephen set up a comparison between Moses and Jesus, but he never finished his speech to make the point. The reader of Acts, however, knowing the other sermons in the book, recognizes that the rejection of Jesus is the counterpoint.

[7:35]  ¹⁵ tn Or “liberator.” The meaning “liberator” for λυτρωτήν (lutrwthn) is given in L&N 37.129: “a person who liberates or releases others.”

[7:35]  ¹⁶ tn Or simply “through the angel.” Here the “hand” could be understood as a figure for the person or the power of the angel himself. The remark about the angel appearing fits the first century Jewish view that God appears to no one (John 1:14-18; Gal 3:19; Deut 33:2 LXX).

[7:42]  ¹⁶ sn The expression and gave them over suggests similarities to the judgment on the nations described by Paul in Rom 1:18-32.

[7:42]  ¹⁷ tn Or “stars.”

[7:42]  ¹⁸ tn The two terms for sacrifices “semantically reinforce one another and are here combined essentially for emphasis” (L&N 53.20).

[7:42]  ¹⁹ tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ question, “was it?”

[7:45]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And.” 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.

[7:45]  ²⁰ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:45]  ²¹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:45]  ²² tn Grk “In those days.”

[10:28]  ²² tn Here ὡς (Jws) is used like ὅτι (Joti) to introduce indirect discourse (cf. BDAG 1105 s.v. ὡς 5).

[10:28]  ²³ tn This term is used of wanton or callously lawless acts (BDAG 24 s.v. ἀθέμιτος).

[10:28]  ²⁴ tn Grk “a Jewish man” (ἀνδρὶ ᾿Ιουδαίῳ, andri Ioudaiw).

[10:28]  ²⁵ tn Grk “a foreigner,” but in this context, “a non-Jew,” that is, a Gentile. This term speaks of intimate association (BDAG 556 s.v. κολλάω 2.b.α). On this Jewish view, see John 18:28, where a visit to a Gentile residence makes a Jewish person unclean.

[10:28]  ²⁶ tn This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo").

[10:28]  ²⁷ tn Possibly there is a subtle distinction in meaning between κοινός (koinos) and ἀκάθαρτος (akaqartos) here, but according to L&N 53.39 it is difficult to determine precise differences in meaning based on existing contexts.

[11:17]  ²⁵ tc Codex Bezae (D) and {a few other Western witnesses} here lack ὁ θεός (Jo qeo", “God”), perhaps because these scribes considered the Holy Spirit to be the gift of Christ rather than the gift of God; thus leaving the subject implicit would naturally draw the reader back to v. 16 to see the Lord Jesus as the bestower of the Spirit.

[11:17]  ²⁶ sn That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.

[11:17]  ²⁷ tn Or “gave us when we believed”; or “gave us after we believed”; or “gave us who believed”; or “gave them when they believed the same gift as he also gave us.” The aorist dative plural participle πιστεύσασιν (pisteusasin) can be understood in several different ways: (1) It could modify ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “us”) or αὐτοῖς (autois, “them”). Proximity (it immediately follows ἡμῖν) would suggest that it belongs with ἡμῖν, so the last option (“gave them when they believed the same gift he also gave us”) is less likely. (2) The participle could be either adverbial or adjectival, modifying ἡμῖν. This decision is primarily a contextual one. The point Peter made is not whether or not the Gentiles believed, since both groups (“us” and “they”) had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The point was whether or not the Gentiles received the Spirit when they believed, just as Jewish Christians had received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost when they believed. Translated as an adjectival participle, πιστεύσασιν only affirms the fact of belief, however, and raises somewhat of a theological problem if one realizes, “Would God have given the Gentiles the Spirit if they had not believed?” (In other words, belief in itself is a theological prerequisite for receiving the Spirit. As such, in the case of the Gentiles, it is assumed.) Thus in context it makes more sense to understand the participle πιστεύσασιν as adverbial, related to the time of belief in connection with the giving of the Spirit. (3) The participle πιστεύσασιν as a temporal participle can refer to action antecedent to the action of the main verb ἔδωκεν (edwken) or contemporaneous with it. Logically, at least, the gift of the Spirit followed belief in the case of the original Christians, who had believed before the day of Pentecost. In the case of Cornelius and his household, belief and the reception of the Spirit were virtually simultaneous. One can argue that Peter is “summarizing” the experience of Jewish Christians, and therefore the actions of belief and reception of the Spirit, while historically separate, have been “telescoped” into one (“gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed”), but to be technically accurate the participle πιστεύσασιν should be translated “gave them the same gift as he also gave us after we believed.” A number of these problems can be avoided, however, by using a translation in English that maintains some of the ambiguity of the Greek original. Thus “if God gave them the same gift as he also gave us after believing” is used, where the phrase “after believing” can refer either to “them” or to “us,” or both.

[11:17]  ²⁸ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:17]  ²⁹ tn Or “prevent,” “forbid” (BDAG 580 s.v. κωλύω 1.a). Peter’s point is that he will not stand in the way of God.

[13:17]  ²⁸ tn Or “people of Israel.”

[13:17]  ²⁹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[13:17]  ³⁰ tn That is, in both numbers and in power. The implication of greatness in both numbers and in power is found in BDAG 1046 s.v. ὑψόω 2.

[13:17]  ³¹ tn Or “as resident aliens.”

[13:17]  ³² tn Or “land.”

[13:17]  ³³ sn Here uplifted arm is a metaphor for God’s power by which he delivered the Israelites from Egypt. See Exod 6:1, 6; 32:11; Deut 3:24; 4:34; Ps 136:11-12.

[15:12]  ³¹ tn BDAG 922 s.v. σιγάω 1.a lists this passage under the meaning “say nothing, keep still, keep silent.”

[15:12]  ³² tn Here in connection with τέρατα (terata) the miraculous nature of these signs is indicated.

[22:14]  ³⁴ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[22:14]  ³⁵ tn L&N 30.89 has “‘to choose in advance, to select beforehand, to designate in advance’…‘the God of our ancestors has already chosen you to know his will’ Ac 22:14.”

[22:14]  ³⁶ tn Grk “and to see.” 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.

[22:14]  ³⁷ sn The Righteous One is a reference to Jesus Christ (Acts 3:14).

[22:14]  ³⁸ tn Or “a solemn declaration”; Grk “a voice.” BDAG 1071-72 s.v. φωνή 2.c states, “that which the voice gives expression to: call, cry, outcry, loud or solemn declaration (… = order, command)…Cp. 22:14; 24:21.”

[23:3]  ³⁷ sn You whitewashed wall. This was an idiom for hypocrisy – just as the wall was painted on the outside but something different on the inside, so this person was not what he appeared or pretended to be (L&N 88.234; see also BDAG 1010 s.v. τοῖχος). Paul was claiming that the man’s response was two-faced (Ezek 13:10-16; Matt 23:27-28). See also Deut 28:22.

[23:3]  ³⁸ tn Grk “And do.” 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.

[23:3]  ³⁹ tn The law refers to the law of Moses.

[23:3]  ⁴⁰ tn BDAG 769 s.v. παρανομέω has “παρανομῶν κελεύεις in violation of the law you order Ac 23:3.”