Acts 8:10

8:10 All the people, ¹  from the least to the greatest, paid close attention to him, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called ‘Great.’” ² 

Acts 8:33

8:33 In humiliation ³  justice was taken from him. ⁴ 

Who can describe his posterity? ⁵ 

For his life was taken away ⁶  from the earth.” ⁷ 

Acts 17:19

17:19 So they took Paul and ⁸  brought him to the Areopagus, ⁹  saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are proclaiming?

Acts 17:21

17:21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there used to spend their time ¹⁰  in nothing else than telling ¹¹  or listening to something new.) ¹² 

Acts 17:29

17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ¹³  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ¹⁴  made by human ¹⁵  skill ¹⁶  and imagination. ¹⁷ 

Acts 27:41

27:41 But they encountered a patch of crosscurrents ¹⁸  and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck fast and could not be moved, but the stern was being broken up by the force ¹⁹  of the waves.

[8:10]  ¹ tn Grk “all of them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:10]  ² tn Or “This man is what is called the Great Power of God.” The translation “what is called the Great Power of God” is given by BDAG 263 s.v. δύναμις 5, but the repetition of the article before καλουμένη μεγάλη (kaloumenh megalh) suggests the translation “the power of God that is called ‘Great.’”

[8:33]  ³ tc ‡ Most later mss (C E Ψ 33^vid Ï sy) read “In his humiliation,” adding αὐτοῦ (autou, “his”) after ταπεινώσει (tapeinwsei, “humiliation”), while the earlier and better witnesses lack the pronoun (so Ì⁷⁴ א A B 1739 pc lat). However, the LXX of Isa 53:8 also lacks the pronoun, supplying motivation for scribes to omit it here. At the same time, scribes would also be motivated to add the pronoun both for clarity’s sake (note the similar impulse that led to the addition of δέ [de] by many of the same mss at the beginning of the next line) and to give balance to the lines (the pronoun is indisputably used five other times in vv. 32-33 in quoting Isa 53). On balance, the shorter reading is preferred.

[8:33]  ⁴ tn Or “justice was denied him”; Grk “his justice was taken away.”

[8:33]  ⁵ tn Or “family; or “origin.” The meaning of γενεά (genea) in the quotation is uncertain; BDAG 192 s.v. γενεά 4 suggests “family history.”

[8:33]  ⁶ tn Grk “is taken away.” The present tense here was translated as a past tense to maintain consistency with the rest of the quotation.

[8:33]  ⁷ sn A quotation from Isa 53:7-8.

[17:19]  ⁵ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:19]  ⁶ tn Or “to the council of the Areopagus.” See also the term in v. 22.

[17:21]  ⁷ tn The imperfect verb ηὐκαίρουν (hukairoun) has been translated as a customary or habitual imperfect.

[17:21]  ⁸ tn BDAG 406-7 s.v. εὐκαιρέω has “used to spend their time in nothing else than telling Ac 17:21.”

[17:21]  ⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. The reference to newness may be pejorative.

[17:29]  ⁹ tn Or “the divine being.” BDAG 446 s.v. θεῖος 1.b has “divine being, divinity” here.

[17:29]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a likeness.” Again idolatry is directly attacked as an affront to God and a devaluation of him.

[17:29]  ¹¹ tn Grk “by the skill and imagination of man,” but ἀνθρώπου (anqrwpou) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[17:29]  ¹² tn Or “craftsmanship” (cf. BDAG 1001 s.v. τέχνη).

[17:29]  ¹³ 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.

[27:41]  ¹¹ tn Grk “fell upon a place of two seas.” The most common explanation for this term is that it refers to a reef or sandbar with the sea on both sides, as noted in BDAG 245 s.v. διθάλασσος: the “τόπος δ. Ac 27:41 is a semantic unit signifying a point (of land jutting out with water on both sides).” However, Greek had terms for a “sandbank” (θῖς [qis], ταινία [tainia]), a “reef” (ἑρμα [Jerma]), “strait” (στενόν [stenon]), “promontory” (ἀρωτήρον [arwthron]), and other nautical hazards, none of which are used by the author here. NEB here translates τόπον διθάλασσον (topon diqalasson) as “cross-currents,” a proposal close to that advanced by J. M. Gilchrist, “The Historicity of Paul’s Shipwreck,” JSNT 61 (1996): 29-51, who suggests the meaning is “a patch of cross-seas,” where the waves are set at an angle to the wind, a particular hazard for sailors. Thus the term most likely refers to some sort of adverse sea conditions rather than a topographical feature like a reef or sandbar.

[27:41]  ¹² tn Or “violence” (BDAG 175 s.v. βία a).