Acts 4:21

4:21 After threatening them further, they released them, for they could not find how to punish them on account of the people, because they were all praising ¹  God for what had happened.

Acts 4:24

4:24 When they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind ²  and said, “Master of all, ³  you who made the heaven, the earth, ⁴  the sea, and everything that is in them,

Acts 7:8

7:8 Then God ⁵  gave Abraham ⁶  the covenant ⁷  of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old, ⁸  and Isaac became the father of ⁹  Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. ¹⁰ 

Acts 11:13

11:13 He informed us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,

Acts 11:17

11:17 Therefore if God ¹¹  gave them the same gift ¹²  as he also gave us after believing ¹³  in the Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁴  who was I to hinder ¹⁵  God?”

Acts 12:14

12:14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she did not open the gate, but ran back in and told ¹⁶  them ¹⁷  that Peter was standing at the gate.

Acts 13:22

13:22 After removing him, God ¹⁸  raised up ¹⁹  David their king. He testified about him: ²⁰  ‘I have found David ²¹  the son of Jesse to be a man after my heart, ²²  who will accomplish everything I want him to do.’ ²³ 

Acts 16:19

16:19 But when her owners ²⁴  saw their hope of profit ²⁵  was gone, they seized ²⁶  Paul and Silas and dragged ²⁷  them into the marketplace before the authorities.

Acts 19:4

19:4 Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, ²⁸  that is, in Jesus.”

Acts 23:18

23:18 So the centurion ²⁹  took him and brought him to the commanding officer ³⁰  and said, “The prisoner Paul called ³¹  me and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you.”

Acts 27:40

27:40 So they slipped ³²  the anchors ³³  and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the linkage ³⁴  that bound the steering oars ³⁵  together. Then they hoisted ³⁶  the foresail ³⁷  to the wind and steered toward ³⁸  the beach.

Acts 28:2

28:2 The local inhabitants ³⁹  showed us extraordinary ⁴⁰  kindness, for they built a fire and welcomed us all because it had started to rain ⁴¹  and was cold.

[4:21]  ¹ tn Or “glorifying.”

[4:24]  ² sn With one mind. Compare Acts 1:14.

[4:24]  ³ tn Or “Lord of all.”

[4:24]  ⁴ tn Grk “and the earth, and the sea,” but καί (kai) has not been translated before “the earth” and “the sea” since contemporary English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[7:8]  ³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:8]  ⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:8]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ sn The twelve patriarchs refers to the twelve sons of Jacob, the famous ancestors of the Jewish race (see Gen 35:23-26).

[11:17]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ sn That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.

[11:17]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:17]  ⁸ 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.

[12:14]  ⁵ tn Or “informed.”

[12:14]  ⁶ tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[13:22]  ⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:22]  ⁷ sn The expression raised up refers here to making someone king. There is a wordplay here: “raising up” refers to bringing someone onto the scene of history, but it echoes with the parallel to Jesus’ resurrection.

[13:22]  ⁸ tn Grk “about whom.” The relative pronoun (“whom”) was replaced by the pronoun “him” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek. The verb εἶπεν (eipen) has not been translated (literally “he said testifying”) because it is redundant when combined with the participle μαρτυρήσας (marturhsa", “testifying”). Instead the construction of verb plus participle has been translated as a single English verb (“testified”).

[13:22]  ⁹ sn A quotation from Ps 89:20.

[13:22]  ¹⁰ sn A quotation from 1 Sam 13:14.

[13:22]  ¹¹ tn Or “who will perform all my will,” “who will carry out all my wishes.”

[16:19]  ⁷ tn Or “masters.”

[16:19]  ⁸ tn On this use of ἐργασία (ergasia), see BDAG 390 s.v. 4. It is often the case that destructive practices and commerce are closely tied together.

[16:19]  ⁹ tn Grk “was gone, seizing.” The participle ἐπιλαβόμενοι (epilabomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[16:19]  ¹⁰ tn On the term ἕλκω ({elkw) see BDAG 318 s.v. 1.

[19:4]  ⁸ sn These disciples may have had their contact with John early on in the Baptist’s ministry before Jesus had emerged. This is the fifth time Luke links John the Baptist and Jesus (Acts 1:5; 11:16; 13:25; 18:25).

[23:18]  ⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the centurion) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:18]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). See note on the term “commanding officer” in v. 10.

[23:18]  ¹¹ tn Grk “calling.” The participle προσκαλεσάμενος (proskalesameno") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[27:40]  ¹⁰ tn That is, released. Grk “slipping…leaving.” The participles περιελόντες (perielonte") and εἴων (eiwn) have been translated as finite verbs due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[27:40]  ¹¹ tn The term is used of a ship’s anchor. (BDAG 12 s.v. ἄγκυρα a).

[27:40]  ¹² tn Grk “bands”; possibly “ropes.”

[27:40]  ¹³ tn Or “rudders.”

[27:40]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “hoisting…they.” The participle ἐπάραντες (eparante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[27:40]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “sail”; probably a reference to the foresail.

[27:40]  ¹⁶ tn BDAG 533 s.v. κατέχω 7 states, “hold course, nautical t.t., intr….κατεῖχον εἰς τὸν αἰγιαλόν they headed for the beach Ac 27:40.”

[28:2]  ¹¹ 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…).”

[28:2]  ¹² tn BDAG 1019 s.v. τυγχάνω 2.d states, “δυνάμεις οὐ τὰς τυχούσας extraordinary miracles Ac 19:11. Cp. 28:2.”

[28:2]  ¹³ tn Or “because it was about to rain.” BDAG 418 s.v. ἐφίστημι 4 states, “διὰ τ. ὑετὸν τὸν ἐφεστῶτα because it had begun to rain Ac 28:2…But the mng. here could also be because it threatened to rain (s. 6).”