Acts 7:25

7:25 He thought his own people ¹  would understand that God was delivering them ²  through him, ³  but they did not understand. ⁴ 

Acts 8:20

8:20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, ⁵  because you thought you could acquire ⁶  God’s gift with money!

Acts 14:19

14:19 But Jews came from Antioch ⁷  and Iconium, ⁸  and after winning ⁹  the crowds over, they stoned ¹⁰  Paul and dragged him out of the city, presuming him to be dead.

Acts 16:13

16:13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the side of the river, where we thought there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down ¹¹  and began to speak ¹²  to the women ¹³  who had assembled there. ¹⁴ 

Acts 17:29

17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ¹⁵  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ¹⁶  made by human ¹⁷  skill ¹⁸  and imagination. ¹⁹ 

Acts 21:29

21:29 (For they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him previously, and ²⁰  they assumed Paul had brought him into the inner temple courts.) ²¹ 

Acts 16:27

16:27 When the jailer woke up ²²  and saw the doors of the prison standing open, ²³  he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, ²⁴  because he assumed ²⁵  the prisoners had escaped.

[7:25]  ¹ tn Grk “his brothers.”

[7:25]  ² tn Grk “was granting them deliverance.” The narrator explains that this act pictured what Moses could do for his people.

[7:25]  ³ tn Grk “by his hand,” where the hand is a metaphor for the entire person.

[7:25]  ⁴ sn They did not understand. Here is the theme of the speech. The people did not understand what God was doing through those he chose. They made the same mistake with Joseph at first. See Acts 3:17; 13:27. There is good precedent for this kind of challenging review of history in the ancient scriptures: Ps 106:6-46; Ezek 20; and Neh 9:6-38.

[8:20]  ⁵ tn Grk “May your silver together with you be sent into destruction.” This is a strong curse. The gifts of God are sovereignly bestowed and cannot be purchased.

[8:20]  ⁶ tn Or “obtain.”

[14:19]  ⁹ sn Antioch was a city in Pisidia about 90 mi (145 km) west northwest of Lystra.

[14:19]  ¹⁰ sn Iconium was a city in Lycaonia about 18 mi (30 km) north of Lystra. Note how Jews from other cities were chasing Paul (2 Cor 11:4-6; Gal 2:4-5; Acts 9:16).

[14:19]  ¹¹ tn The participle πείσαντες (peisante") is taken temporally (BDAG 791 s.v. πείθω 1.c).

[14:19]  ¹² tn Grk “stoning Paul they dragged him.” The participle λιθάσαντες (liqasante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[16:13]  ¹³ tn Grk “and sitting down we began to speak.” The participle καθίσαντες (kaqisante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[16:13]  ¹⁴ tn The imperfect verb ἐλαλοῦμεν (elaloumen) has been translated as an ingressive imperfect.

[16:13]  ¹⁵ sn To the women. Apparently there were not enough Jews present in Philippi to have a synagogue (ten men would have been required to have one).

[16:13]  ¹⁶ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[17:29]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the divine being.” BDAG 446 s.v. θεῖος 1.b has “divine being, divinity” here.

[17:29]  ¹⁸ tn Or “a likeness.” Again idolatry is directly attacked as an affront to God and a devaluation of him.

[17:29]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “by the skill and imagination of man,” but ἀνθρώπου (anqrwpou) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[17:29]  ²⁰ tn Or “craftsmanship” (cf. BDAG 1001 s.v. τέχνη).

[17:29]  ²¹ tn Or “thought.” BDAG 336 s.v. ἐνθύμησις has “thought, reflection, idea” as the category of meaning here, but in terms of creativity (as in the context) the imaginative faculty is in view.

[21:29]  ²¹ tn Grk “whom.”

[21:29]  ²² tn On the phrase “inner temple courts” see the note on the word “temple” in v. 28.

[16:27]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn The additional semantic component “standing” is supplied (“standing open”) to convey a stative nuance in English.

[16:27]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn Or “thought.”