Acts 5:19

5:19 But during the night an angel of the Lord ¹  opened ²  the doors of the prison, ³  led them out, ⁴  and said,

Acts 12:6

12:6 On that very night before Herod was going to bring him out for trial, ⁵  Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, while ⁶  guards in front of the door were keeping watch ⁷  over the prison.

Acts 16:27

16:27 When the jailer woke up ⁸  and saw the doors of the prison standing open, ⁹  he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, ¹⁰  because he assumed ¹¹  the prisoners had escaped.

[5:19]  ¹ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” Linguistically, “angel of the Lord” is the same in both testaments (and thus, he is either “an angel of the Lord” or “the angel of the Lord” in both testaments). For arguments and implications, see ExSyn 252; M. J. Davidson, “Angels,” DJG, 9; W. G. MacDonald argues for “an angel” in both testaments: “Christology and ‘The Angel of the Lord’,” Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation, 324-35.

[5:19]  ² tn Grk “opening the doors of the prison.” The participle ἀνοίξας (anoixa") has been translated as a finite verb due to the requirements of contemporary English style.

[5:19]  ³ tn Greek φυλακῆς (fulakh"), a different word from the one in v. 18 (τήρησις, thrhsi", “jail”).

[5:19]  ⁴ tn Or “brought them out.” Grk “and leading them out, said.” The participle ἐξαγαγών (exagagwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[12:6]  ⁵ tn Grk “was going to bring him out,” but the upcoming trial is implied. See Acts 12:4.

[12:6]  ⁶ tn Grk “two chains, and.” Logically it makes better sense to translate this as a temporal clause, although technically it is a coordinate clause in Greek.

[12:6]  ⁷ tn Or “were guarding.”

[16:27]  ⁹ tn L&N 23.75 has “had awakened” here. It is more in keeping with contemporary English style, however, to keep the two verbal ideas parallel in terms of tense (“when the jailer woke up and saw”) although logically the second action is subsequent to the first.

[16:27]  ¹⁰ tn The additional semantic component “standing” is supplied (“standing open”) to convey a stative nuance in English.

[16:27]  ¹¹ sn Was about to kill himself. The jailer’s penalty for failing to guard the prisoners would have been death, so he contemplated saving the leaders the trouble (see Acts 12:19; 27:42).

[16:27]  ¹² tn Or “thought.”