Acts 7:56

7:56 “Look!” he said. ¹  “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

Acts 16:14

16:14 A ²  woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth ³  from the city of Thyatira, ⁴  a God-fearing woman, listened to us. ⁵  The Lord opened her heart to respond ⁶  to what Paul was saying.

Acts 17:3

17:3 explaining and demonstrating ⁷  that the Christ ⁸  had to suffer and to rise from the dead, ⁹  saying, ¹⁰  “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” ¹¹ 

[7:56]  ¹ tn Grk “And he said, ‘Look!’” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences, καί (kai) has not been translated here; a new sentence is begun instead.

[16:14]  ² tn Grk “And a.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[16:14]  ³ tn On the term translated “a dealer in purple cloth” see BDAG 855 s.v. πορφυρόπωλις.

[16:14]  ⁴ sn Thyatira was a city in the province of Lydia in Asia Minor.

[16:14]  ⁵ tn The words “to us” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[16:14]  ⁶ tn Although BDAG 880 s.v. προσέχω 2.b gives the meaning “pay attention to” here, this could be misunderstood by the modern English reader to mean merely listening intently. The following context, however, indicates that Lydia responded positively to Paul’s message, so the verb here was translated “to respond.”

[17:3]  ³ tn BDAG 772 s.v. παρατίθημι 2.b has “demonstrate, point out” here.

[17:3]  ⁴ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[17:3]  ⁵ sn The Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead. These two points (suffering and resurrection) would have been among the more controversial aspects of Paul’s messianic preaching. The term translated “had to” (δεῖ, dei) shows how divine design and scripture corresponded here.

[17:3]  ⁶ tn The Greek words used here (καὶ ὅτι, kai {oti, “and that”) mark the switch from indirect to direct discourse. Contemporary English requires the use of an introductory verb of speaking or saying to make this transition.

[17:3]  ⁷ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”