Acts 4:32

Conditions Among the Early Believers

4:32 The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, ¹  and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but everything was held in common. ² 

Acts 11:17

11:17 Therefore if God ³  gave them the same gift ⁴  as he also gave us after believing ⁵  in the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁶  who was I to hinder ⁷  God?”

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 

Acts 18:27

18:27 When Apollos ¹⁰  wanted to cross over to Achaia, ¹¹  the brothers encouraged ¹²  him ¹³  and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he ¹⁴  assisted greatly those who had believed by grace,

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, ¹⁵  that is, in Jesus.”

Acts 21:20

21:20 When they heard this, they praised ¹⁶  God. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews ¹⁷  there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers ¹⁸  of the law. ¹⁹ 

Acts 24:14

24:14 But I confess this to you, that I worship ²⁰  the God of our ancestors ²¹  according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law ²²  and that is written in the prophets.

[4:32]  ¹ tn Grk “soul.”

[4:32]  ² tn Grk “but all things were to them in common.”

[11:17]  ³ 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]  ⁴ sn That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.

[11:17]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:17]  ⁷ 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.

[13:41]  ⁵ tn Or “and die!”

[13:41]  ⁶ 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.

[18:27]  ⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Apollos) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:27]  ⁸ sn To cross over to Achaia. Achaia was organized by the Romans as a separate province in 27 b.c. and was located across the Aegean Sea from Ephesus. The city of Corinth was in Achaia.

[18:27]  ⁹ tn Grk “encouraging [him], the brothers wrote.” The participle προτρεψάμενοι (protreyamenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. This was the typical letter of commendation from the Ephesians to the Achaeans.

[18:27]  ¹⁰ tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[18:27]  ¹¹ tn Grk “who, when he arrived.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (“who”) was replaced with the pronoun “he” and a new sentence begun in the translation.

[19:4]  ⁹ 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).

[21:20]  ¹¹ tn Or “glorified.”

[21:20]  ¹² tn Grk “how many thousands there are among the Jews.”

[21:20]  ¹³ tn Or “are all zealous for the law.” BDAG 427 s.v. ζηλωτής 1.a.β has “of thing…τοῦ νόμου an ardent observer of the law Ac 21:20.”

[21:20]  ¹⁴ sn That is, the law of Moses. These Jewish Christians had remained close to their Jewish practices after becoming believers (1 Cor 7:18-19; Acts 16:3).

[24:14]  ¹³ tn Or “serve.”

[24:14]  ¹⁴ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[24:14]  ¹⁵ sn That is, the law of Moses. Paul was claiming that he legitimately worshiped the God of Israel. He was arguing that this amounted to a religious dispute rather than a political one, so that the Roman authorities need not concern themselves with it.