Acts 3:12

3:12 When Peter saw this, he declared to the people, “Men of Israel, ¹  why are you amazed at this? Why ²  do you stare at us as if we had made this man ³  walk by our own power or piety?

Acts 25:16

25:16 I answered them ⁴  that it was not the custom of the Romans to hand over anyone ⁵  before the accused had met his accusers face to face ⁶  and had been given ⁷  an opportunity to make a defense against the accusation. ⁸ 

Acts 28:4

28:4 When the local people ⁹  saw the creature hanging from Paul’s ¹⁰  hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself ¹¹  has not allowed him to live!” ¹² 

[3:12]  ¹ tn Or perhaps “People of Israel,” since this was taking place in Solomon’s Portico and women may have been present. The Greek ἄνδρες ᾿Ισραηλῖται (andre" Israhlitai) used in the plural would normally mean “men, gentlemen” (BDAG 79 s.v. ἀνήρ 1.a).

[3:12]  ² tn Grk “or why.”

[3:12]  ³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:16]  ⁴ tn Grk “to whom I answered.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (“whom”) has been replaced with a personal pronoun (“them”) and a new sentence started in the translation at the beginning of v. 16.

[25:16]  ⁵ tn Grk “any man.” This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos).

[25:16]  ⁶ tn Or “has met his accusers in person.”

[25:16]  ⁷ tn Grk “and receives.”

[25:16]  ⁸ tn Or “indictment” (a legal technical term). BDAG 273-74 s.v. ἔγκλημα 1 states, “legal t.t.…ἀπολογία περὶ τοῦ ἐ. defense against the accusation Ac 25:16.” L&N 56.6 defines ἔγκλημα (enklhma) as “(a technical, legal term) a formal indictment or accusation brought against someone – ‘indictment, accusation, case.’ …‘and might receive an opportunity for a defense against the indictment’ Ac 25:16.”

[28:4]  ⁷ tn Although this is literally βάρβαροι (barbaroi; “foreigners, barbarians”) used for non-Greek or non-Romans, as BDAG 166 s.v. βάρβαρος 2.b notes, “Of the inhabitants of Malta, who apparently spoke in their native language Ac 28:2, 4 (here β. certainly without derogatory tone…).”

[28:4]  ⁸ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ⁹ tn That is, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live. BDAG 250 s.v. δίκη 2 states, “Justice personified as a deity Ac 28:4”; L&N 12.27, “a goddess who personifies justice in seeking out and punishing the guilty – ‘the goddess Justice.’ ἡ δίκη ζῆν οὐκ εἴασεν ‘the goddess Justice would not let him live’ Ac 28:4.” Although a number of modern English translations have rendered δίκη (dikh) “justice,” preferring to use an abstraction, in the original setting it is almost certainly a reference to a pagan deity. In the translation, the noun “justice” was capitalized and the reflexive pronoun “herself” was supplied to make the personification clear. This was considered preferable to supplying a word like ‘goddess’ in connection with δίκη.

[28:4]  ¹⁰ sn The entire scene is played out initially as a kind of oracle from the gods resulting in the judgment of a guilty person (Justice herself has not allowed him to live). Paul’s survival of this incident without ill effects thus spoke volumes about his innocence.