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 16:1

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

16:1 He also came to Derbe ⁷  and to Lystra. ⁸  A disciple ⁹  named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, ¹⁰  but whose father was a Greek. ¹¹ 

Acts 16:16

Paul and Silas Are Thrown Into Prison

16:16 Now ¹²  as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. ¹³  She ¹⁴  brought her owners ¹⁵  a great profit by fortune-telling. ¹⁶ 

Acts 22:25

22:25 When they had stretched him out for the lash, ¹⁷  Paul said to the centurion ¹⁸  standing nearby, “Is it legal for you to lash a man who is a Roman citizen ¹⁹  without a proper trial?” ²⁰ 

Acts 27:7

27:7 We sailed slowly ²¹  for many days and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus. ²²  Because the wind prevented us from going any farther, ²³  we sailed under the lee ²⁴  of Crete off Salmone. ²⁵ 

[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.

[16:1]  ⁷ sn Derbe was a city in Lycaonia about 35 mi (60 km) southeast of Lystra. It was about 90 mi (145 km) from Tarsus.

[16:1]  ⁸ sn Lystra was a city in Lycaonia about 25 mi (40 km) south of Iconium.

[16:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “And behold, a disciple.” Here ἰδού (idou) has not been translated.

[16:1]  ¹⁰ tn L&N 31.103 translates this phrase “the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer.”

[16:1]  ¹¹ sn His father was a Greek. Timothy was the offspring of a mixed marriage between a Jewish woman (see 2 Tim 1:5) and a Gentile man. On mixed marriages in Judaism, see Neh 13:23-27; Ezra 9:1-10:44; Mal 2:10-16; Jub. 30:7-17; m. Qiddushin 3.12; m. Yevamot 7.5.

[16:16]  ¹³ tn Grk “Now it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[16:16]  ¹⁴ tn Or “who had a spirit of divination”; Grk “who had a spirit of Python.” According to BDAG 896-97 s.v. πύθων, originally Πύθων (Puqwn) was the name of the serpent or dragon that guarded the Delphic oracle. According to Greek mythology, it lived at the foot of Mount Parnassus and was killed by Apollo. From this, the word came to designate a person who was thought to have a spirit of divination. Pagan generals, for example, might consult someone like this. So her presence here suggests a supernatural encounter involving Paul and her “spirit.” W. Foerster, TDNT 6:920, connects the term with ventriloquism but states: “We must assume, however, that for this girl, as for those mentioned by Origen…, the art of ventriloquism was inseparably connected with a (supposed or authentic) gift of soothsaying.” It should also be noted that if the girl in question here were only a ventriloquist, the exorcism performed by Paul in v. 18 would not have been effective.

[16:16]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “who.” Because of the awkwardness in English of having two relative clauses follow one another (“who had a spirit…who brought her owners a great profit”) the relative pronoun here (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“she”) and a new sentence begun in the translation.

[16:16]  ¹⁶ tn Or “masters.”

[16:16]  ¹⁷ tn On this term see BDAG 616 s.v. μαντεύομαι. It was used of those who gave oracles.

[22:25]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “for the thongs” (of which the lash was made). Although often translated as a dative of means (“with thongs”), referring to thongs used to tie the victim to the whipping post, BDAG 474-75 s.v. ἱμάς states that it “is better taken as a dat. of purpose for the thongs, in which case οἱ ἱμάντες = whips (Posidonius: 87 fgm. 5 Jac.; POxy. 1186, 2 τὴν διὰ τῶν ἱμάντων αἰκείαν. – Antiphanes 74, 8, Demosth. 19, 197 and Artem. 1, 70 use the sing. in this way).”

[22:25]  ²⁰ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[22:25]  ²¹ tn The word “citizen” is supplied here for emphasis and clarity.

[22:25]  ²² tn Or “a Roman citizen and uncondemned.” BDAG 35 s.v. ἀκατάκριτος has “uncondemned, without due process” for this usage.

[27:7]  ²⁵ tn The participle βραδυπλοοῦντες (braduploounte") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[27:7]  ²⁶ sn Cnidus was the name of a peninsula on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. This was about 130 mi (210 km) from Myra.

[27:7]  ²⁷ tn This genitive absolute construction with προσεῶντος (prosewnto") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle. L&N 13.139 translates the phrase μὴ προσεῶντος ἡμᾶς τοῦ ἀνέμου (mh prosewnto" Jhma" tou anemou) as “the wind would not let us go any farther.”

[27:7]  ²⁸ tn BDAG 1040 s.v. ὑποπλέω states, “sail under the lee of an island, i.e. in such a way that the island protects the ship fr. the wind Ac 27:4, 7.”

[27:7]  ²⁹ sn Salmone was the name of a promontory on the northeastern corner of the island of Crete. This was about 100 mi (160 km) farther along.