Isaiah 56:6-7

56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of ¹  the Lord and serve him,

who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants –

all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

and who are faithful to ²  my covenant –

56:7 I will bring them to my holy mountain;

I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me. ³ 

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,

for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.” ⁴ 

Acts 2:5-10

2:5 Now there were devout Jews ⁵  from every nation under heaven residing in Jerusalem. ⁶  2:6 When this sound ⁷  occurred, a crowd gathered and was in confusion, ⁸  because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 2:7 Completely baffled, they said, ⁹  “Aren’t ¹⁰  all these who are speaking Galileans? 2:8 And how is it that each one of us hears them ¹¹  in our own native language? ¹²  2:9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia, ¹³  2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, ¹⁴  and visitors from Rome, ¹⁵ 

Acts 11:18

11:18 When they heard this, ¹⁶  they ceased their objections ¹⁷  and praised ¹⁸  God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance ¹⁹  that leads to life even to the Gentiles.” ²⁰ 

Ephesians 2:12-13

2:12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, ²¹  alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, ²²  having no hope and without God in the world. 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ²³ 

Ephesians 2:19-22

2:19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 2:20 because you have been built ²⁴  on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, ²⁵  with Christ Jesus himself as ²⁶  the cornerstone. ²⁷  2:21 In him ²⁸  the whole building, ²⁹  being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:6

3:6 namely, that through the gospel ³⁰  the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members ³¹  of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

Revelation 7:9-10

7:9 After these things I looked, and here was ³²  an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, ³³  people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. 7:10 They were shouting out in a loud voice,

“Salvation belongs to our God, ³⁴ 

to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

[56:6]  ¹ tn Heb “who attach themselves to.”

[56:6]  ² tn Heb “and take hold of”; NAB “hold to”; NIV, NRSV “hold fast.”

[56:7]  ³ tn Heb “in the house of my prayer.”

[56:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”

[2:5]  ⁵ tn Grk “Jews, devout men.” It is possible that only men are in view here in light of OT commands for Jewish men to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at various times during the year (cf. Exod 23:17, 34:23; Deut 16:16). However, other evidence seems to indicate that both men and women might be in view. Luke 2:41-52 shows that whole families would make the temporary trip to Jerusalem. In addition, it is probable that the audience consisted of families who had taken up permanent residence in Jerusalem. The verb κατοικέω (katoikew) normally means “reside” or “dwell,” and archaeological evidence from tombs in Jerusalem does indicate that many families immigrated to Jerusalem permanently (see B. Witherington, Acts, 135); this would naturally include women. Also, the word ἀνήρ (ajnhr), which usually does mean “male” or “man” (as opposed to woman), sometimes is used generically to mean “a person” (BDAG 79 s.v. 2; cf. Matt 12:41). Given this evidence, then, it is conceivable that the audience in view here is not individual male pilgrims but a mixed group of men and women.

[2:5]  ⁶ tn Grk “Now there were residing in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.”

[2:6]  ⁷ tn Or “this noise.”

[2:6]  ⁸ tn Or “was bewildered.”

[2:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “They were astounded and amazed, saying.” The two imperfect verbs, ἐξίσταντο (existanto) and ἐθαύμαζον (eqaumazon), show both the surprise and the confusion on the part of the hearers. The verb ἐξίσταντο (from ἐξίστημι, existhmi) often implies an illogical perception or response (BDAG 350 s.v. ἐξίστημι): “to be so astonished as to almost fail to comprehend what one has experienced” (L&N 25.218).

[2:7]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Behold, aren’t all these.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn Grk “we hear them, each one of us.”

[2:8]  ¹² tn Grk “in our own language in which we were born.”

[2:9]  ¹³ tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.

[2:10]  ¹⁴ tn According to BDAG 595 s.v. Λιβύη, the western part of Libya, Libya Cyrenaica, is referred to here (see also Josephus, Ant. 16.6.1 [16.160] for a similar phrase).

[2:10]  ¹⁵ map For location see JP4 A1.

[11:18]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “these things.”

[11:18]  ¹⁷ tn Or “became silent,” but this would create an apparent contradiction with the subsequent action of praising God. The point, in context, is that they ceased objecting to what Peter had done.

[11:18]  ¹⁸ tn Or “glorified.”

[11:18]  ¹⁹ sn Here the summary phrase for responding to the gospel is the repentance that leads to life. Note how the presence of life is tied to the presence of the Spirit (cf. John 4:7-42; 7:37-39).

[11:18]  ²⁰ sn In the Greek text the phrase even to the Gentiles is in an emphatic position.

[2:12]  ²¹ tn Or “without Christ.” Both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” Because the context refers to ancient Israel’s messianic expectation, “Messiah” was employed in the translation at this point rather than “Christ.”

[2:12]  ²² tn Or “covenants of the promise.”

[2:13]  ²³ tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”

[2:20]  ²⁴ tn Grk “having been built.”

[2:20]  ²⁵ sn Apostles and prophets. Because the prophets appear after the mention of the apostles and because they are linked together in 3:5 as recipients of revelation about the church, they are to be regarded not as Old Testament prophets, but as New Testament prophets.

[2:20]  ²⁶ tn Grk “while Christ Jesus himself is” or “Christ Jesus himself being.”

[2:20]  ²⁷ tn Or perhaps “capstone” (NAB). The meaning of ἀκρογωνιαῖος (akrogwniaio") is greatly debated. The meaning “capstone” is proposed by J. Jeremias (TDNT 1:792), but the most important text for this meaning (T. Sol. 22:7-23:4) is late and possibly not even an appropriate parallel. The only place ἀκρογωνιαῖος is used in the LXX is Isa 28:16, and there it clearly refers to a cornerstone that is part of a foundation. Furthermore, the imagery in this context has the building growing off the cornerstone upward, whereas if Christ were the capstone, he would not assume his position until the building was finished, which vv. 21-22 argue against.

[2:21]  ²⁸ tn Grk “in whom” (v. 21 is a relative clause, subordinate to v. 20).

[2:21]  ²⁹ tc Although several important witnesses (א¹ A C P 6 81 326 1739^c 1881) have πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή (pasa Jh oikodomh), instead of πᾶσα οἰκοδομή (the reading of א* B D F G Ψ 33 1739* Ï), the article is almost surely a scribal addition intended to clarify the meaning of the text, for with the article the meaning is unambiguously “the whole building.”

[3:6]  ³⁰ sn The phrase through the gospel is placed last in the sentence in Greek for emphasis. It has been moved forward for clarity.

[3:6]  ³¹ tn Grk “and fellow members.”

[7:9]  ³² tn The phrase “and here was” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).

[7:9]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated before each of the following categories, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[7:10]  ³⁴ tn The dative here has been translated as a dative of possession.