Acts 3:25

3:25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, ¹  saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants ²  all the nations ³  of the earth will be blessed.’ ⁴ 

Acts 11:19

Activity in the Church at Antioch

11:19 Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen ⁵  went as far as ⁶  Phoenicia, ⁷  Cyprus, ⁸  and Antioch, ⁹  speaking the message ¹⁰  to no one but Jews.

Acts 18:2

18:2 There he ¹¹  found ¹²  a Jew named Aquila, ¹³  a native of Pontus, ¹⁴  who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius ¹⁵  had ordered all the Jews to depart from ¹⁶  Rome. ¹⁷  Paul approached ¹⁸  them,

Acts 25:23

Paul Before King Agrippa and Bernice

25:23 So the next day Agrippa ¹⁹  and Bernice came with great pomp ²⁰  and entered the audience hall, ²¹  along with the senior military officers ²²  and the prominent men of the city. When Festus ²³  gave the order, ²⁴  Paul was brought in.

Acts 26:20

26:20 but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, ²⁵  and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, ²⁶  performing deeds consistent with ²⁷  repentance.

Acts 26:22

26:22 I have experienced ²⁸  help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except ²⁹  what the prophets and Moses said ³⁰  was going to happen:

Acts 28:4

28:4 When the local people ³¹  saw the creature hanging from Paul’s ³²  hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself ³³  has not allowed him to live!” ³⁴ 

[3:25]  ¹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[3:25]  ² tn Or “in your offspring”; Grk “in your seed.”

[3:25]  ³ tn Or “families.” The Greek word πατριά (patria) can indicate persons of succeeding generations who are related by birth (“lineage,” “family”) but it can also indicate a relatively large unit of people who make up a sociopolitical group and who share a presumed biological descent. In many contexts πατριά is very similar to ἔθνος (eqnos) and λαός (laos). In light of the context of the OT quotation, it is better to translate πατριά as “nations” here.

[3:25]  ⁴ sn A quotation from Gen 22:18.

[11:19]  ⁵ sn The phrase over Stephen means in connection with Stephen’s death. See Acts 8:1b-3.

[11:19]  ⁶ tn Or “finally reached.” The translations “went as far as” and “finally reached” for διῆλθον (dihlqon) in this verse are given in L&N 15.17.

[11:19]  ⁷ sn Phoenicia was an area along the Mediterranean coast north of Palestine.

[11:19]  ⁸ tn Grk “and Cyprus,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[11:19]  ⁹ sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). This was probably the third largest city in the Greco-Roman world (Alexandria in Egypt was the second largest, and Rome the largest) and was the seat of government in Syria. Five miles away was a major temple to Artemis, Apollo, and Astarte, major pagan deities.

[11:19]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “word.”

[18:2]  ⁹ tn Grk “And he.” 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. The word “there” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

[18:2]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “finding.” The participle εὑρών (Jeurwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[18:2]  ¹¹ sn On Aquila and his wife Priscilla see also Acts 18:18, 26; Rom 16:3-4; 1 Cor 16:19; 2 Tim 4:19. In the NT “Priscilla” and “Prisca” are the same person. This author uses the full name Priscilla, while Paul uses the diminutive form Prisca.

[18:2]  ¹² sn Pontus was a region in the northeastern part of Asia Minor. It was a Roman province.

[18:2]  ¹³ sn Claudius refers to the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, known as Claudius, who ruled from a.d. 41-54. The edict expelling the Jews from Rome was issued in a.d. 49 (Suetonius, Claudius 25.4).

[18:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “to leave.”

[18:2]  ¹⁵ map For location see JP4 A1.

[18:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “went to.”

[25:23]  ¹³ sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.

[25:23]  ¹⁴ tn Or “great pageantry” (BDAG 1049 s.v. φαντασία; the term is a NT hapax legomenon).

[25:23]  ¹⁵ tn Or “auditorium.” “Auditorium” may suggest to the modern English reader a theater where performances are held. Here it is the large hall where a king or governor would hold audiences. Paul once spoke of himself as a “spectacle” to the world (1 Cor 4:8-13).

[25:23]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the chiliarchs” (officers in command of a thousand soldiers). In Greek the term χιλίαρχος (ciliarco") literally described the “commander of a thousand,” but it was used as the standard translation for the Latin tribunus militum or tribunus militare, the military tribune who commanded a cohort of 600 men.

[25:23]  ¹⁷ sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.

[25:23]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “and Festus ordering, Paul was brought in.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun in the translation, and καί (kai) has not been translated. The participle κελεύσαντος (keleusanto") has been taken temporally.

[26:20]  ¹⁷ tn BDAG 1093-94 s.v. χώρα 2.b states, “of the provincial name (1 Macc 8:3) ἡ χώρα τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας Ac 26:20.”

[26:20]  ¹⁸ sn That they should repent and turn to God. This is the shortest summary of Paul’s message that he preached.

[26:20]  ¹⁹ tn BDAG 93 s.v. ἄξιος 1.b, “καρποὶ ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας fruits in keeping with your repentance…Lk 3:8; Mt 3:8. For this ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα Ac 26:20.” Note how Paul preached the gospel offer and the issue of response together, side by side.

[26:22]  ²¹ tn Grk “So experiencing…I stand.” The participle τυχών (tucwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[26:22]  ²² tn BDAG 311 s.v. ἐκτός 3.b, “functions as prep. w. gen. οὐδὲν ἐ. ὧν nothing except what (cf. 1 Ch 29:3; 2 Ch 17:19; TestNapht. 6:2) Ac 26:22.”

[26:22]  ²³ sn What the prophets and Moses said. Paul argued that his message reflected the hope of the Jewish scriptures.

[28:4]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ 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.