Acts 7:20-22

7:20 At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful ¹  to God. For ²  three months he was brought up in his father’s house, 7:21 and when he had been abandoned, ³  Pharaoh’s daughter adopted ⁴  him and brought him up ⁵  as her own son. 7:22 So Moses was trained ⁶  in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful ⁷  in his words and deeds.

[7:20]  ¹ tn Or “was well-formed before God,” or “was well-pleasing to God” (BDAG 145 s.v. ἀστεῖος suggests the meaning is more like “well-bred” as far as God was concerned; see Exod 2:2).

[7:20]  ² tn Grk “who was brought up for three months.” The continuation of the sentence as a relative clause is awkward in English, so a new sentence was started in the translation by changing the relative pronoun to a regular pronoun (“he”).

[7:21]  ³ tn Or “exposed” (see v. 19).

[7:21]  ⁴ tn Grk “Pharaoh’s daughter took him up for herself.” According to BDAG 64 s.v. ἀναιρέω, “The pap. exx. involve exposed children taken up and reared as slaves…The rendering ‘adopt’ lacks philological precision and can be used only in a loose sense (as NRSV), esp. when Gr-Rom. terminology relating to adoption procedures is taken into account.” In this instance both the immediate context and the OT account (Exod 2:3-10) do support the normal sense of the English word “adopt,” although it should not be understood to refer to a technical, legal event.

[7:21]  ⁵ tn Or “and reared him” (BDAG 74 s.v. ἀνατρέφω b).

[7:22]  ⁶ tn Or “instructed.”

[7:22]  ⁷ tn Or “was able” (BDAG 264 s.v. δυνατός 1.b.α).