Acts 23:25

23:25 He wrote ¹  a letter that went like this: ² 

Acts 7:43-44

7:43 But you took along the tabernacle ³  of Moloch ⁴  and the star of the ⁵  god Rephan, ⁶  the images you made to worship, but I will deport ⁷  you beyond Babylon.’ ⁸  7:44 Our ancestors ⁹  had the tabernacle ¹⁰  of testimony in the wilderness, ¹¹  just as God ¹²  who spoke to Moses ordered him ¹³  to make it according to the design he had seen.

[23:25]  ¹ tn Grk “writing.” Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun here in the translation, supplying “he” (referring to the commanding officer, Claudius Lysias) as subject. The participle γράψας (grayas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[23:25]  ² tn Grk “having this form,” “having this content.” L&N 33.48 has “γράψσς ἐπιστολὴν ἔχουσαν τὸν τύπον τοῦτον ‘then he wrote a letter that went like this’ Ac 23:25. It is also possible to understand ἐπιστολή in Ac 23:25 not as a content or message, but as an object (see 6.63).”

[7:43]  ³ tn Or “tent.”

[7:43]  ⁴ sn Moloch was a Canaanite deity who was believed to be the god of the sky and the sun.

[7:43]  ⁵ tc ‡ Most mss, including several important ones (Ì⁷⁴ א A C E Ψ 33 1739 Ï h p vg sy^h mae bo Cyr), have ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) here, in conformity with the LXX of Amos 5:26. But other significant and diverse witnesses lack the pronoun: The lack of ὑμῶν in B D 36 453 gig sy^p sa Ir^lat Or is difficult to explain if it is not the original wording here. NA²⁷ has the word in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

[7:43]  ⁶ sn Rephan (῾Ραιφάν, RJaifan) was a pagan deity. The term was a name for Saturn. It was variously spelled in the mss (BDAG 903 s.v. has Rompha as an alternate spelling). The references cover a range of deities and a history of unfaithfulness.

[7:43]  ⁷ tn Or “I will make you move.”

[7:43]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Amos 5:25-27. This constituted a prediction of the exile.

[7:44]  ⁵ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:44]  ⁶ tn Or “tent.”

[7:44]  ⁷ tn Or “desert.”

[7:44]  ⁸ tn Grk “the one”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:44]  ⁹ tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.