Acts 5:38

5:38 So in this case I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking originates with people, ¹  it will come to nothing, ² 

Acts 9:2

9:2 and requested letters from him to the synagogues ³  in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, ⁴  either men or women, he could bring them as prisoners ⁵  to Jerusalem. ⁶ 

Acts 13:41

13:41 ‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! ⁷ 

For I am doing a work in your days,

a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” ⁸ 

[5:38]  ¹ tn Here ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[5:38]  ² tn Or “it will be put to an end.”

[9:2]  ³ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[9:2]  ⁴ sn The expression “the way” in ancient religious literature refers at times to “the whole way of life fr. a moral and spiritual viewpoint” (BDAG 692 s.v. ὁδός 3.c), and it has been so used of Christianity and its teachings in the book of Acts (see also 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). It is a variation of Judaism’s idea of two ways, the true and the false, where “the Way” is the true one (1 En. 91:18; 2 En. 30:15).

[9:2]  ⁵ tn Grk “bring them bound”; the translation “bring someone as prisoner” for δεδεμένον ἄγειν τινά (dedemenon agein tina) is given by BDAG 221 s.v. δέω 1.b.

[9:2]  ⁶ sn From Damascus to Jerusalem was a six-day journey. Christianity had now expanded into Syria.

[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.