Acts 7:38

7:38 This is the man who was in the congregation ¹  in the wilderness ²  with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, ³  and he ⁴  received living oracles ⁵  to give to you. ⁶ 

Acts 7:2

7:2 So he replied, ⁷  “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our forefather ⁸  Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

Acts 28:22

28:22 But we would like to hear from you what you think, for regarding this sect we know ⁹  that people ¹⁰  everywhere speak against ¹¹  it.”

Daniel 6:13

6:13 Then they said to the king, “Daniel, who is one of the captives ¹²  from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the edict that you issued. Three times daily he offers his prayer.” ¹³ 

[7:38]  ¹ tn This term, ἐκκλησία (ekklhsia), is a secular use of the term that came to mean “church” in the epistles. Here a reference to an assembly is all that is intended.

[7:38]  ² tn Or “desert.”

[7:38]  ³ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:38]  ⁴ tn Grk “fathers, who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new clause introduced by “and” was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.

[7:38]  ⁵ tn Or “messages.” This is an allusion to the law given to Moses.

[7:38]  ⁶ tc ‡ The first person pronoun ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “to us”) is read by A C D E Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat sy, while the second person pronoun ὑμῖν (Jumin, “to you”) is read by Ì⁷⁴ א B 36 453 al co. The second person pronoun thus has significantly better external support. As well, ὑμῖν is a harder reading in this context, both because it is surrounded by first person pronouns and because Stephen perhaps “does not wish to disassociate himself from those who received God’s revelation in the past, but only from those who misinterpreted and disobeyed that revelation” (TCGNT 307). At the same time, Stephen does associate himself to some degree with his disobedient ancestors in v. 39, suggesting that the decisive break does not really come until v. 51 (where both his present audience and their ancestors are viewed as rebellious). Thus, both externally and internally ὑμῖν is the preferred reading.

[7:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “said.”

[7:2]  ⁸ tn Or “ancestor”; Grk “father.”

[28:22]  ⁹ tn Grk “regarding this sect it is known to us.” The passive construction “it is known to us” has been converted to an active one to simplify the translation.

[28:22]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “that everywhere it is spoken against.” To simplify the translation the passive construction “it is spoken against” has been converted to an active one with the subject “people” supplied.

[28:22]  ¹¹ tn On the term translated “speak against,” see BDAG 89 s.v. ἀντιλέγω 1.

[6:13]  ¹² tn Aram “from the sons of the captivity [of].”

[6:13]  ¹³ tn Aram “prays his prayer.”