Acts 2:44-46

Context
2:44 All who believed were together and held¹ everything in common, 2:45 and they began selling² their property³ and possessions and distributing the proceeds⁴ to everyone, as anyone had need. 2:46 Every day⁵ they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts,⁶ breaking bread from⁷ house to house, sharing their food with glad⁸ and humble hearts,⁹

[2:44] ¹tn Grk “had.”

[2:45] ²tn The imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive (“began…”). Since in context this is a description of the beginning of the community of believers, it is more likely that these statements refer to the start of various activities and practices that the early church continued for some time.

[2:45] ³tn It is possible that the first term for property (κτήματα, kthmata) refers to real estate (as later usage seems to indicate) while the second term (ὑπάρξεις, Juparxeis) refers to possessions in general, but it may also be that the two terms are used together for emphasis, simply indicating that all kinds of possessions were being sold. However, if the first term is more specifically a reference to real estate, it foreshadows the incident with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11.

[2:45] ⁴tn Grk “distributing them” (αὐτά, auta). The referent (the proceeds of the sales) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:46] ⁵tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.

[2:46] ⁶tn Grk “in the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.

[2:46] ⁷tn Here κατά (kata) is used as a distributive (BDAG 512 s.v. B.1.d).

[2:46] ⁸sn The term glad (Grk “gladness”) often refers to joy brought about by God’s saving acts (Luke 1:14, 44; also the related verb in 1:47; 10:21).

[2:46] ⁹tn Grk “with gladness and humbleness of hearts.” It is best to understand καρδίας (kardias) as an attributed genitive, with the two nouns it modifies actually listing attributes of the genitive noun which is related to them.