Acts 3:10

3:10 and they recognized him as the man who used to sit and ask for donations ¹  at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with astonishment and amazement ²  at what had happened to him.

Acts 4:32

Conditions Among the Early Believers

4:32 The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, ³  and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but everything was held in common. ⁴ 

Acts 16:16

Paul and Silas Are Thrown Into Prison

16:16 Now ⁵  as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. ⁶  She ⁷  brought her owners ⁸  a great profit by fortune-telling. ⁹ 

[3:10]  ¹ tn Grk “alms,” but this term is not in common use today, so the closest modern equivalent, “donations,” is used instead. The idea is that of a donation to charity.

[3:10]  ² sn Amazement is a frequent response to miracles of Jesus or the apostles. These took the ancients by as much surprise as they would people today. But in terms of response to what God is doing, amazement does not equal faith (Luke 4:36; 5:9, 26; 7:16).

[4:32]  ³ tn Grk “soul.”

[4:32]  ⁴ tn Grk “but all things were to them in common.”

[16:16]  ⁵ tn Grk “Now it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[16:16]  ⁶ tn Or “who had a spirit of divination”; Grk “who had a spirit of Python.” According to BDAG 896-97 s.v. πύθων, originally Πύθων (Puqwn) was the name of the serpent or dragon that guarded the Delphic oracle. According to Greek mythology, it lived at the foot of Mount Parnassus and was killed by Apollo. From this, the word came to designate a person who was thought to have a spirit of divination. Pagan generals, for example, might consult someone like this. So her presence here suggests a supernatural encounter involving Paul and her “spirit.” W. Foerster, TDNT 6:920, connects the term with ventriloquism but states: “We must assume, however, that for this girl, as for those mentioned by Origen…, the art of ventriloquism was inseparably connected with a (supposed or authentic) gift of soothsaying.” It should also be noted that if the girl in question here were only a ventriloquist, the exorcism performed by Paul in v. 18 would not have been effective.

[16:16]  ⁷ tn Grk “who.” Because of the awkwardness in English of having two relative clauses follow one another (“who had a spirit…who brought her owners a great profit”) the relative pronoun here (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“she”) and a new sentence begun in the translation.

[16:16]  ⁸ tn Or “masters.”

[16:16]  ⁹ tn On this term see BDAG 616 s.v. μαντεύομαι. It was used of those who gave oracles.