Acts 8:5

8:5 Philip went down to the main city of Samaria ¹  and began proclaiming ²  the Christ ³  to them.

Acts 8:35

8:35 So Philip started speaking, ⁴  and beginning with this scripture ⁵  proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him.

Acts 9:20

9:20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, ⁶  saying, “This man is the Son of God.” ⁷ 

Acts 17:18

17:18 Also some of the Epicurean ⁸  and Stoic ⁹  philosophers were conversing ¹⁰  with him, and some were asking, ¹¹  “What does this foolish babbler ¹²  want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” ¹³  (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ¹⁴ 

Acts 17:1

Paul and Silas at Thessalonica

17:1 After they traveled through ¹⁵  Amphipolis ¹⁶  and Apollonia, ¹⁷  they came to Thessalonica, ¹⁸  where there was a Jewish synagogue. ¹⁹ 

Colossians 1:23-24

1:23 if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, ²⁰  without shifting ²¹  from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

Colossians 2:2

2:2 My goal is that ²²  their hearts, having been knit together ²³  in love, may be encouraged, and that ²⁴  they may have all the riches that assurance brings in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ²⁵ 

Ephesians 3:8

3:8 To me – less than the least of all the saints ²⁶  – this grace was given, ²⁷  to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ

[8:5]  ¹ tn The word “main” is supplied in the translation to clarify that “Samaria” is not the name of the city (at least in NT times). See both BDAG 912 s.v. Σαμάρεια, and L&N 93.568.

[8:5]  ² tn The imperfect ἐκήρυσσεν (ekhrussen) has been translated as an ingressive, since this is probably the first time such preaching took place.

[8:5]  ³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[8:35]  ⁴ tn Grk “opening his mouth” (a Semitic idiom for beginning to speak in a somewhat formal manner). The participle ἀνοίξας (anoixa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[8:35]  ⁵ sn Beginning with this scripture. The discussion likely included many of the scriptures Acts has already noted for the reader in earlier speeches. At the least, readers of Acts would know what other scriptures might be meant.

[9:20]  ⁶ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[9:20]  ⁷ tn The ὅτι (Joti) is understood to introduce direct (“This man is the Son of God”) rather than indirect discourse (“that this man is the Son of God”) because the pronoun οὗτος (Jouto") combined with the present tense verb ἐστιν (estin) suggests the contents of what was proclaimed are a direct (albeit summarized) quotation.

[17:18]  ⁸ sn An Epicurean was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, who founded a school in Athens about 300 b.c. Although the Epicureans saw the aim of life as pleasure, they were not strictly hedonists, because they defined pleasure as the absence of pain. Along with this, they desired the avoidance of trouble and freedom from annoyances. They saw organized religion as evil, especially the belief that the gods punished evildoers in an afterlife. In keeping with this, they were unable to accept Paul’s teaching about the resurrection.

[17:18]  ⁹ sn A Stoic was a follower of the philosophy founded by Zeno (342-270 b.c.), a Phoenician who came to Athens and modified the philosophical system of the Cynics he found there. The Stoics rejected the Epicurean ideal of pleasure, stressing virtue instead. The Stoics emphasized responsibility for voluntary actions and believed risks were worth taking, but thought the actual attainment of virtue was difficult. They also believed in providence.

[17:18]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβάλλω 1 has “converse, confer” here.

[17:18]  ¹¹ tn Grk “saying.”

[17:18]  ¹² tn Or “ignorant show-off.” The traditional English translation of σπερμολόγος (spermologo") is given in L&N 33.381 as “foolish babbler.” However, an alternate view is presented in L&N 27.19, “(a figurative extension of meaning of a term based on the practice of birds in picking up seeds) one who acquires bits and pieces of relatively extraneous information and proceeds to pass them off with pretense and show – ‘ignorant show-off, charlatan.’” A similar view is given in BDAG 937 s.v. σπερμολόγος: “in pejorative imagery of persons whose communication lacks sophistication and seems to pick up scraps of information here and there scrapmonger, scavenger…Engl. synonyms include ‘gossip’, ‘babbler’, chatterer’; but these terms miss the imagery of unsystematic gathering.”

[17:18]  ¹³ tn The meaning of this phrase is not clear. Literally it reads “strange deities” (see BDAG 210 s.v. δαιμόνιον 1). The note of not being customary is important. In the ancient world what was new was suspicious. The plural δαιμονίων (daimoniwn, “deities”) shows the audience grappling with Paul’s teaching that God was working through Jesus.

[17:18]  ¹⁴ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[17:1]  ¹⁵ tn BDAG 250 s.v. διοδεύω 1 has “go, travel through” for this verse.

[17:1]  ¹⁶ sn Amphipolis. The capital city of the southeastern district of Macedonia (BDAG 55 s.v. ᾿Αμφίπολις). It was a military post. From Philippi this was about 33 mi (53 km).

[17:1]  ¹⁷ sn Apollonia was a city in Macedonia about 27 mi (43 km) west southwest of Amphipolis.

[17:1]  ¹⁸ sn Thessalonica (modern Salonica) was a city in Macedonia about 33 mi (53 km) west of Apollonia. It was the capital of Macedonia. The road they traveled over was called the Via Egnatia. It is likely they rode horses, given their condition in Philippi. The implication of v. 1 is that the two previously mentioned cities lacked a synagogue.

[17:1]  ¹⁹ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[1:23]  ²⁰ tn BDAG 276 s.v. ἑδραῖος suggests “firm, steadfast.”

[1:23]  ²¹ tn BDAG 639 s.v. μετακινέω suggests “without shifting from the hope” here.

[2:2]  ²² tn Verse two begins a subordinate ἵνα (Jina) clause which was divided up into two sentences for the sake of clarity in English. Thus the phrase “My goal is that” is an attempt to reflect in the translation the purpose expressed through the ἵνα clauses.

[2:2]  ²³ tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβιβάζω 1.b reads “unite, knit together.” Some commentators take the verb as a reference to instruction, “instructed in love.” See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 93.

[2:2]  ²⁴ tn The phrase “and that” translates the first εἰς (eis) clause of v. 2 and reflects the second goal of Paul’s striving and struggle for the Colossians – the first is “encouragement” and the second is “full assurance.”

[2:2]  ²⁵ tc There are at least a dozen variants here, almost surely generated by the unusual wording τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ (tou qeou, Cristou, “of God, Christ”; so Ì⁴⁶ B Hil). Scribes would be prone to conform this to more common Pauline expressions such as “of God, who is in Christ” (33), “of God, the Father of Christ” (א* A C 048^vid 1175 bo), and “of the God and Father of Christ” (א² Ψ 075 0278 365 1505 pc). Even though the external support for the wording τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ is hardly overwhelming, it clearly best explains the rise of the other readings and should thus be regarded as authentic.

[3:8]  ²⁶ sn In Pauline writings saints means any true believer. Thus for Paul to view himself as less than the least of all the saints is to view himself as the most unworthy object of Christ’s redemption.

[3:8]  ²⁷ sn The parallel phrases to proclaim and to enlighten which follow indicate why God’s grace was manifested to Paul. Grace was not something just to be received, but to be shared with others (cf. Acts 13:47).