Acts 3:6

3:6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, ¹  but what I do have I give you. In the name ²  of Jesus Christ ³  the Nazarene, stand up and ⁴  walk!”

Acts 3:16

3:16 And on the basis of faith in Jesus’ ⁵  name, ⁶  his very name has made this man – whom you see and know – strong. The ⁷  faith that is through Jesus ⁸  has given him this complete health in the presence ⁹  of you all.

Acts 4:12

4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people ¹⁰  by which we must ¹¹  be saved.”

Acts 7:8

7:8 Then God ¹²  gave Abraham ¹³  the covenant ¹⁴  of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old, ¹⁵  and Isaac became the father of ¹⁶  Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. ¹⁷ 

Acts 7:10

7:10 and rescued him from all his troubles, and granted him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made ¹⁸  him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

Acts 7:38

7:38 This is the man who was in the congregation ¹⁹  in the wilderness ²⁰  with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, ²¹  and he ²²  received living oracles ²³  to give to you. ²⁴ 

Acts 11:17

11:17 Therefore if God ²⁵  gave them the same gift ²⁶  as he also gave us after believing ²⁷  in the Lord Jesus Christ, ²⁸  who was I to hinder ²⁹  God?”

Acts 14:3

14:3 So they stayed there ³⁰  for a considerable time, speaking out courageously for the Lord, who testified ³¹  to the message ³²  of his grace, granting miraculous signs ³³  and wonders to be performed through their hands.

Acts 20:32

20:32 And now I entrust ³⁴  you to God and to the message ³⁵  of his grace. This message ³⁶  is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Acts 20:35

20:35 By all these things, ³⁷  I have shown you that by working in this way we must help ³⁸  the weak, ³⁹  and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ⁴⁰ 

[3:6]  ¹ tn Or “I have no money.” L&N 6.69 classifies the expression ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον (argurion kai crusion) as an idiom that is a generic expression for currency, thus “money.”

[3:6]  ² sn In the name. Note the authority in the name of Jesus the Messiah. His presence and power are at work for the man. The reference to “the name” is not like a magical incantation, but is designed to indicate the agent who performs the healing. The theme is quite frequent in Acts (2:38 plus 21 other times).

[3:6]  ³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[3:6]  ⁴ tc The words “stand up and” (ἔγειρε καί, egeire kai) are not in a few mss (א B D sa), but are included in A C E Ψ 095 33 1739 Ï lat sy mae bo. The external testimony is thus fairly evenly divided, with few but important representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texttypes supporting the shorter reading. Internally, the words look like a standard scribal emendation, and may have been motivated by other healing passages where Jesus gave a similar double command (cf. Matt 9:5; Mark 2:9, [11]; Luke 5:23; [6:8]; John 5:8). On the other hand, there is some motivation for deleting ἔγειρε καί here, namely, unlike Jesus’ healing miracles, Peter raises (ἤγειρεν, hgeiren) the man to his feet (v. 7) rather than the man rising on his own. In light of the scribal tendency to harmonize, especially in immediate context, the longer reading is slightly preferred.

[3:16]  ⁵ tn Grk “in his name”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:16]  ⁶ sn Here is another example of appeal to the person by mentioning the name. See the note on the word name in 3:6.

[3:16]  ⁷ tn Grk “see and know, and the faith.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation and καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated.

[3:16]  ⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:16]  ⁹ tn Or “in full view.”

[4:12]  ⁹ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[4:12]  ¹⁰ sn Must be saved. The term used here (δεῖ, dei, “it is necessary”) reflects the necessity set up by God’s directive plan.

[7:8]  ¹³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:8]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:8]  ¹⁵ sn God gave…the covenant. Note how the covenant of promise came before Abraham’s entry into the land and before the building of the temple.

[7:8]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “circumcised him on the eighth day,” but many modern readers will not understand that this procedure was done on the eighth day after birth. The temporal clause “when he was eight days old” conveys this idea more clearly. See Gen 17:11-12.

[7:8]  ¹⁷ tn The words “became the father of” are not in the Greek text due to an ellipsis, but must be supplied for the English translation. The ellipsis picks up the verb from the previous clause describing how Abraham fathered Isaac.

[7:8]  ¹⁸ sn The twelve patriarchs refers to the twelve sons of Jacob, the famous ancestors of the Jewish race (see Gen 35:23-26).

[7:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “appointed.” See Gen 41:41-43.

[7:38]  ²¹ tn This term, ἐκκλησία (ekklhsia), is a secular use of the term that came to mean “church” in the epistles. Here a reference to an assembly is all that is intended.

[7:38]  ²² tn Or “desert.”

[7:38]  ²³ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:38]  ²⁴ tn Grk “fathers, who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new clause introduced by “and” was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.

[7:38]  ²⁵ tn Or “messages.” This is an allusion to the law given to Moses.

[7:38]  ²⁶ tc ‡ The first person pronoun ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “to us”) is read by A C D E Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat sy, while the second person pronoun ὑμῖν (Jumin, “to you”) is read by Ì⁷⁴ א B 36 453 al co. The second person pronoun thus has significantly better external support. As well, ὑμῖν is a harder reading in this context, both because it is surrounded by first person pronouns and because Stephen perhaps “does not wish to disassociate himself from those who received God’s revelation in the past, but only from those who misinterpreted and disobeyed that revelation” (TCGNT 307). At the same time, Stephen does associate himself to some degree with his disobedient ancestors in v. 39, suggesting that the decisive break does not really come until v. 51 (where both his present audience and their ancestors are viewed as rebellious). Thus, both externally and internally ὑμῖν is the preferred reading.

[11:17]  ²⁵ tc Codex Bezae (D) and {a few other Western witnesses} here lack ὁ θεός (Jo qeo", “God”), perhaps because these scribes considered the Holy Spirit to be the gift of Christ rather than the gift of God; thus leaving the subject implicit would naturally draw the reader back to v. 16 to see the Lord Jesus as the bestower of the Spirit.

[11:17]  ²⁶ sn That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.

[11:17]  ²⁷ tn Or “gave us when we believed”; or “gave us after we believed”; or “gave us who believed”; or “gave them when they believed the same gift as he also gave us.” The aorist dative plural participle πιστεύσασιν (pisteusasin) can be understood in several different ways: (1) It could modify ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “us”) or αὐτοῖς (autois, “them”). Proximity (it immediately follows ἡμῖν) would suggest that it belongs with ἡμῖν, so the last option (“gave them when they believed the same gift he also gave us”) is less likely. (2) The participle could be either adverbial or adjectival, modifying ἡμῖν. This decision is primarily a contextual one. The point Peter made is not whether or not the Gentiles believed, since both groups (“us” and “they”) had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The point was whether or not the Gentiles received the Spirit when they believed, just as Jewish Christians had received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost when they believed. Translated as an adjectival participle, πιστεύσασιν only affirms the fact of belief, however, and raises somewhat of a theological problem if one realizes, “Would God have given the Gentiles the Spirit if they had not believed?” (In other words, belief in itself is a theological prerequisite for receiving the Spirit. As such, in the case of the Gentiles, it is assumed.) Thus in context it makes more sense to understand the participle πιστεύσασιν as adverbial, related to the time of belief in connection with the giving of the Spirit. (3) The participle πιστεύσασιν as a temporal participle can refer to action antecedent to the action of the main verb ἔδωκεν (edwken) or contemporaneous with it. Logically, at least, the gift of the Spirit followed belief in the case of the original Christians, who had believed before the day of Pentecost. In the case of Cornelius and his household, belief and the reception of the Spirit were virtually simultaneous. One can argue that Peter is “summarizing” the experience of Jewish Christians, and therefore the actions of belief and reception of the Spirit, while historically separate, have been “telescoped” into one (“gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed”), but to be technically accurate the participle πιστεύσασιν should be translated “gave them the same gift as he also gave us after we believed.” A number of these problems can be avoided, however, by using a translation in English that maintains some of the ambiguity of the Greek original. Thus “if God gave them the same gift as he also gave us after believing” is used, where the phrase “after believing” can refer either to “them” or to “us,” or both.

[11:17]  ²⁸ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:17]  ²⁹ tn Or “prevent,” “forbid” (BDAG 580 s.v. κωλύω 1.a). Peter’s point is that he will not stand in the way of God.

[14:3]  ²⁹ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[14:3]  ³⁰ sn The Lord testified to the message by granting the signs described in the following clause.

[14:3]  ³¹ tn Grk “word.”

[14:3]  ³² tn Here the context indicates the miraculous nature of the signs mentioned.

[20:32]  ³³ tn Or “commend.” BDAG 772 s.v. παρατίθημι 3.b has “τινά τινι entrust someone to the care or protection of someone…Of divine protection παρέθεντο αὐτοὺς τῷ κυρίῳ Ac 14:23; cp. 20:32.”

[20:32]  ³⁴ tn Grk “word.”

[20:32]  ³⁵ tn Grk “the message of his grace, which.” The phrase τῷ δυναμένῳ οἰκοδομῆσαι… (tw dunamenw oikodomhsai…) refers to τῷ λόγω (tw logw), not τῆς χάριτος (ths caritos); in English it could refer to either “the message” or “grace,” but in Greek, because of agreement in gender, the referent can only be “the message.” To make this clear, a new sentence was begun in the translation and the referent “the message” was repeated at the beginning of this new sentence.

[20:35]  ³⁷ sn The expression By all these things means “In everything I did.”

[20:35]  ³⁸ tn Or “must assist.”

[20:35]  ³⁹ tn Or “the sick.” See Eph 4:28.

[20:35]  ⁴⁰ sn The saying is similar to Matt 10:8. Service and generosity should be abundant. Interestingly, these exact words are not found in the gospels. Paul must have known of this saying from some other source.