Acts 3:14

3:14 But you rejected ¹  the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a man who was a murderer be released to you.

Acts 7:52

7:52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors ²  not persecute? ³  They ⁴  killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One, ⁵  whose betrayers and murderers you have now become! ⁶ 

Acts 28:4

28:4 When the local people ⁷  saw the creature hanging from Paul’s ⁸  hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself ⁹  has not allowed him to live!” ¹⁰ 

[3:14]  ¹ tn Or “denied,” “disowned.”

[7:52]  ² tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:52]  ³ sn Which…persecute. The rhetorical question suggests they persecuted them all.

[7:52]  ⁴ tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:52]  ⁵ sn The Righteous One is a reference to Jesus Christ.

[7:52]  ⁶ sn Whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. The harsh critique has OT precedent (1 Kgs 19:10-14; Neh 9:26; 2 Chr 36:16).

[28:4]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.