Acts 23:27-29

23:27 This man was seized ¹  by the Jews and they were about to kill him, ²  when I came up ³  with the detachment ⁴  and rescued him, because I had learned that he was ⁵  a Roman citizen. ⁶  23:28 Since I wanted to know ⁷  what charge they were accusing him of, ⁸  I brought him down to their council. ⁹  23:29 I found he ¹⁰  was accused with reference to controversial questions ¹¹  about their law, but no charge against him deserved death or imprisonment. ¹² 

[23:27]  ¹ tn The participle συλλημφθέντα (sullhmfqenta) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. The remark reviews events of Acts 21:27-40.

[23:27]  ² tn Grk “and was about to be killed by them.” The passive construction has been converted to an active one in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[23:27]  ³ tn Or “approached.”

[23:27]  ⁴ tn Normally this term means “army,” but according to BDAG 947 s.v. στράτευμα, “Of a smaller detachment of soldiers, sing. Ac 23:10, 27.” In the plural it can be translated “troops,” but it is singular here.

[23:27]  ⁵ tn In Greek this is a present tense retained in indirect discourse.

[23:27]  ⁶ tn The word “citizen” is supplied here for emphasis and clarity.

[23:28]  ⁷ tn Or “determine.”

[23:28]  ⁸ tn Grk “to know the charge on account of which they were accusing him.” This has been simplified to eliminate the prepositional phrase and relative pronoun δι᾿ ἣν (di’ }hn) similar to L&N 27.8 which has “‘I wanted to find out what they were accusing him of, so I took him down to their Council’ Ac 23:28.”

[23:28]  ⁹ tn Grk “their Sanhedrin” (the Sanhedrin was the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).

[23:29]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “whom I found.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (“whom”) has been changed to a personal pronoun (“he”) and a new sentence begun in the translation at this point.

[23:29]  ¹¹ tn BDAG 428 s.v. ζήτημα states, “in our lit. only in Ac, w. the mng. it still has in Mod. Gk. (controversial) question, issue, argument…Ac 15:2; 26:3. ζ. περί τινος questions about someth.…18:15; 25:19. – In 23:29, since περί had already been used, the subj. of the discussion is added in the gen. ζ. τοῦ νόμου αὐτῶν.”

[23:29]  ¹² tn Grk “but having no charge worthy of death or imprisonment.” BDAG 273-74 s.v. ἔγκλημα 1 has “legal t.t.…ἔ. ἄξιον θανάτου ἢ δεσμῶν a charge deserving death or imprisonment 23:29.”