Acts 2:27-31

2:27 because you will not leave my soul in Hades, ¹ 

nor permit your Holy One to experience ²  decay.

2:28 You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will make me full of joy with your presence.’ ³ 

2:29 “Brothers, ⁴  I can speak confidently ⁵  to you about our forefather ⁶  David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 2:30 So then, because ⁷  he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants ⁸  on his throne, ⁹  2:31 David by foreseeing this ¹⁰  spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, ¹¹  that he was neither abandoned to Hades, ¹²  nor did his body ¹³  experience ¹⁴  decay. ¹⁵ 

[2:27]  ¹ tn Or “will not abandon my soul to Hades.” Often “Hades” is the equivalent of the Hebrew term Sheol, the place of the dead.

[2:27]  ² tn Grk “to see,” but the literal translation of the phrase “to see decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “to look at decay,” while here “see decay” is really figurative for “experience decay.”

[2:28]  ³ sn A quotation from Ps 16:8-11.

[2:29]  ⁴ tn Since this represents a continuation of the address beginning in v.14 and continued in v. 22, “brothers” has been used here rather than a generic expression like “brothers and sisters.”

[2:29]  ⁵ sn Peter’s certainty is based on well-known facts.

[2:29]  ⁶ tn Or “about our noted ancestor,” “about the patriarch.”

[2:30]  ⁷ tn The participles ὑπάρχων (Juparcwn) and εἰδώς (eidw") are translated as causal adverbial participles.

[2:30]  ⁸ tn Grk “one from the fruit of his loins.” “Loins” is the traditional translation of ὀσφῦς (osfu"), referring to the male genital organs. A literal rendering like “one who came from his genital organs” would be regarded as too specific and perhaps even vulgar by many contemporary readers. Most modern translations thus render the phrase “one of his descendants.”

[2:30]  ⁹ sn An allusion to Ps 132:11 and 2 Sam 7:12-13, the promise in the Davidic covenant.

[2:31]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “David foreseeing spoke.” The participle προϊδών (proidwn) is taken as indicating means. It could also be translated as a participle of attendant circumstance: “David foresaw [this] and spoke.” The word “this” is supplied in either case as an understood direct object (direct objects in Greek were often omitted, but must be supplied for the modern English reader).

[2:31]  ¹¹ tn Or “the Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[2:31]  ¹² tn Or “abandoned in the world of the dead.” The translation “world of the dead” for Hades is suggested by L&N 1.19. The phrase is an allusion to Ps 16:10.

[2:31]  ¹³ tn Grk “flesh.” See vv. 26b-27. The reference to “body” in this verse picks up the reference to “body” in v. 26. The Greek term σάρξ (sarx) in both verses literally means “flesh”; however, the translation “body” stresses the lack of decay of his physical body. The point of the verse is not merely the lack of decay of his flesh alone, but the resurrection of his entire person, as indicated by the previous parallel line “he was not abandoned to Hades.”

[2:31]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “see,” but the literal translation of the phrase “see decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “look at decay,” while here “see decay” is really figurative for “experience decay.”

[2:31]  ¹⁵ sn An allusion to Ps 16:10.