Acts 4:5

4:5 On the next day, ¹  their rulers, elders, and experts in the law ²  came together ³  in Jerusalem. ⁴ 

Acts 14:23

14:23 When they had appointed elders ⁵  for them in the various churches, ⁶  with prayer and fasting ⁷  they entrusted them to the protection ⁸  of the Lord in whom they had believed.

Acts 21:18

21:18 The next day Paul went in with us to see James, and all the elders were there. ⁹ 

[4:5]  ¹ tn Grk “It happened that on the next day.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[4:5]  ² tn Or “and scribes.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[4:5]  ³ tn Or “law assembled,” “law met together.”

[4:5]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:23]  ⁵ sn Appointed elders. See Acts 20:17.

[14:23]  ⁶ tn The preposition κατά (kata) is used here in a distributive sense; see BDAG 512 s.v. κατά B.1.d.

[14:23]  ⁷ tn Literally with a finite verb (προσευξάμενοι, proseuxamenoi) rather than a noun, “praying with fasting,” but the combination “prayer and fasting” is so familiar in English that it is preferable to use it here.

[14:23]  ⁸ tn BDAG 772 s.v. παρατίθημι 3.b has “entrust someone to the care or protection of someone” for this phrase. The reference to persecution or suffering in the context (v. 22) suggests “protection” is a better translation here. This looks at God’s ultimate care for the church.

[21:18]  ⁹ tn BDAG 760 s.v. παραγίνομαι 1 has this use under the broad category of meaning “draw near, come, arrive, be present.”