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 4:13

4:13 When they saw the boldness ⁴  of Peter and John, and discovered ⁵  that they were uneducated ⁶  and ordinary ⁷  men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been with Jesus.

Acts 13:41

13:41 ‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! ⁸ 

For I am doing a work in your days,

a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” ⁹ 

[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.

[4:13]  ⁴ tn Or “courage.”

[4:13]  ⁵ tn Or “and found out.”

[4:13]  ⁶ sn Uneducated does not mean “illiterate,” that is, unable to read or write. Among Jews in NT times there was almost universal literacy, especially as the result of widespread synagogue schools. The term refers to the fact that Peter and John had no formal rabbinic training and thus, in the view of their accusers, were not qualified to expound the law or teach publicly. The objection is like Acts 2:7.

[4:13]  ⁷ tn For the translation of ἰδιῶται (idiwtai) as “ordinary men” see L&N 27.26.

[13:41]  ⁷ tn Or “and die!”

[13:41]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Hab 1:5. The irony in the phrase even if someone tells you, of course, is that Paul has now told them. So the call in the warning is to believe or else face the peril of being scoffers whom God will judge. The parallel from Habakkuk is that the nation failed to see how Babylon’s rising to power meant perilous judgment for Israel.