Acts 9:1

The Conversion of Saul

9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing out threats ¹  to murder ²  the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest

Acts 9:19

9:19 and after taking some food, his strength returned.

For several days ³  he was with the disciples in Damascus,

Acts 9:25

9:25 But his disciples took him at night and let him down through an opening ⁴  in the wall by lowering him in a basket. ⁵ 

Acts 18:23

18:23 After he spent ⁶  some time there, Paul left and went through the region of Galatia ⁷  and Phrygia, ⁸  strengthening all the disciples.

Acts 20:30

20:30 Even from among your own group ⁹  men ¹⁰  will arise, teaching perversions of the truth ¹¹  to draw the disciples away after them.

[9:1]  ¹ tn Or “Saul, making dire threats.”

[9:1]  ² tn The expression “breathing out threats and murder” is an idiomatic expression for “making threats to murder” (see L&N 33.293). Although the two terms “threats” and “murder” are syntactically coordinate, the second is semantically subordinate to the first. In other words, the content of the threats is to murder the disciples.

[9:19]  ³ tn Grk “It happened that for several days.” 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.

[9:25]  ⁵ tn The opening in the wall is not specifically mentioned here, but the parallel account in 2 Cor 11:33 mentions a “window” or “opening” (θυρίς, quris) in the city wall through which Paul was lowered. One alternative to introducing mention of the opening is to translate Acts 9:25 “they let him down over the wall,” as suggested in L&N 7.61. This option is not employed by many translations, however, because for the English reader it creates an (apparent) contradiction between Acts 9:25 and 2 Cor 11:33. In reality the account here is simply more general, omitting the detail about the window.

[9:25]  ⁶ tn On the term for “basket” used here, see BDAG 940 s.v. σπυρίς.

[18:23]  ⁷ tn Grk “Having spent”; the participle ποιήσας (poihsas) is taken temporally.

[18:23]  ⁸ sn Galatia refers to either (1) the region of the old kingdom of Galatia in the central part of Asia Minor, or (2) the Roman province of Galatia, whose principal cities in the 1st century were Ancyra and Pisidian Antioch. The exact extent and meaning of this area has been a subject of considerable controversy in modern NT studies.

[18:23]  ⁹ sn Phrygia was a district in central Asia Minor west of Pisidia. See Acts 16:6.

[20:30]  ⁹ tn Grk “from among yourselves.”

[20:30]  ¹⁰ tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only rarely is used in a generic sense to refer to both males and females. Since Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at this point and there is nothing in the context to suggest women were included in that group (“from among your own group”), it is most likely Paul was not predicting that these false teachers would include women.

[20:30]  ¹¹ tn Grk “speaking crooked things”; BDAG 237 s.v. διαστρέφω 2 has “λαλεῖν διεστραμμένα teach perversions (of the truth) Ac 20:30.”