Leviticus 26:33

26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword ¹  after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

Deuteronomy 4:27

4:27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you ²  among the nations where the Lord will drive you.

Deuteronomy 28:64

28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone.

Deuteronomy 30:3

30:3 the Lord your God will reverse your captivity and have pity on you. He will turn and gather you from all the peoples among whom he ³  has scattered you.

Deuteronomy 32:26

The Weakness of Other Gods

32:26 “I said, ‘I want to cut them in pieces. ⁴ 

I want to make people forget they ever existed.

Esther 3:8

3:8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a particular people ⁵  that is dispersed and spread among the inhabitants ⁶  throughout all the provinces of your kingdom whose laws differ from those of all other peoples. Furthermore, they do not observe the king’s laws. It is not appropriate for the king to provide a haven for them. ⁷ 

Ezekiel 12:15

12:15 “Then they will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among foreign countries.

John 7:35

7:35 Then the Jewish leaders ⁸  said to one another, “Where is he ⁹  going to go that we cannot find him? ¹⁰  He is not going to go to the Jewish people dispersed ¹¹  among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? ¹² 

Acts 2:5

2:5 Now there were devout Jews ¹³  from every nation under heaven residing in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ 

Acts 8:1

8:1 And Saul agreed completely with killing ¹⁵  him.

Saul Begins to Persecute the Church

Now on that day a great ¹⁶  persecution began ¹⁷  against the church in Jerusalem, ¹⁸  and all ¹⁹  except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions ²⁰  of Judea and Samaria.

Acts 15:21

15:21 For Moses has had those who proclaim him in every town from ancient times, ²¹  because he is read aloud ²²  in the synagogues ²³  every Sabbath.”

Acts 15:1

The Jerusalem Council

15:1 Now some men came down from Judea ²⁴  and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised ²⁵  according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Acts 1:1

Jesus Ascends to Heaven

1:1 I wrote ²⁶  the former ²⁷  account, ²⁸  Theophilus, ²⁹  about all that Jesus began to do and teach

[26:33]  ¹ tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3).

[4:27]  ² tn Heb “you will be left men (i.e., few) of number.”

[30:3]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[32:26]  ⁴ tc The LXX reads “I said I would scatter them.” This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT, CEV).

[3:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “one people.” Note the subtle absence at this point of a specific mention of the Jewish people by name.

[3:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “peoples” (so NASB, NIV); NAB “nations”

[3:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “to cause them to rest”; NASB “to let them remain”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “to tolerate them.”

[7:35]  ⁸ tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase is understood to refer to the Jewish authorities or leaders, since the Jewish leaders are mentioned in this context both before and after the present verse (7:32, 45).

[7:35]  ⁹ tn Grk “this one.”

[7:35]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “will not find him.”

[7:35]  ¹¹ sn The Jewish people dispersed (Grk “He is not going to the Diaspora”). The Greek term diaspora (“dispersion”) originally meant those Jews not living in Palestine, but dispersed or scattered among the Gentiles.

[7:35]  ¹² tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “is he?”).

[2:5]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Now there were residing in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.”

[8:1]  ¹⁵ tn The term ἀναίρεσις (anairesi") can refer to murder (BDAG 64 s.v.; 2 Macc 5:13; Josephus, Ant. 5.2.12 [5.165]).

[8:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or “severe.”

[8:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Now there happened on that day a great persecution.” It is less awkward to say in English “Now on that day a great persecution began.”

[8:1]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:1]  ¹⁹ sn All. Given that the Jerusalem church is still active after this and that the Hellenists are the focus of Acts 6-8, it is possible to argue that only the Hellenistic Christians were forced to scatter.

[8:1]  ²⁰ tn Or “countryside.”

[15:21]  ²¹ tn Grk “from generations of old”; the translation “fr. ancient times” is given by BDAG 192 s.v. γενεά 3.b.

[15:21]  ²² tn The translation “read aloud” is used to indicate the actual practice; translating as “read” could be misunderstood to mean private, silent reading.

[15:21]  ²³ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[15:1]  ²⁴ sn That is, they came down from Judea to Antioch in Syria.

[15:1]  ²⁵ tc Codex Bezae (D) and a few other witnesses have “and walk” here (i.e., instead of τῷ ἔθει τῷ Μωϋσέως [tw eqei tw Mwu>sew"] they read καὶ τῷ ἔθει τῷ Μωϋσέως περιπατῆτε [kai tw eqei tw Mwu>sew" peripathte]). This is a decidedly stronger focus on obedience to the Law. As well, D expands vv. 1-5 in various places with the overall effect of being “more sympathetic to the local tradition of the church at Jerusalem” while the Alexandrian witnesses are more sympathetic to Paul (TCGNT 377). Codex D is well known for having a significantly longer text in Acts, but modern scholarship is generally of the opinion that the text of D expands on the original wording of Acts, with a theological viewpoint that especially puts Peter in a more authoritarian light. The expansion in these five verses is in keeping with that motif even though Peter is not explicitly in view.

[1:1]  ²⁶ tn Or “produced,” Grk “made.”

[1:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “first.” The translation “former” is preferred because “first” could imply to the modern English reader that the author means that his previous account was the first one to be written down. The Greek term πρῶτος (prwtos) does not necessarily mean “first” in an absolute sense, but can refer to the first in a set or series. That is what is intended here – the first account (known as the Gospel of Luke) as compared to the second one (known as Acts).

[1:1]  ²⁸ tn The Greek word λόγος (logos) is sometimes translated “book” (NRSV, NIV) or “treatise” (KJV). A formal, systematic treatment of a subject is implied, but the word “book” may be too specific and slightly misleading to the modern reader, so “account” has been used.

[1:1]  ²⁹ tn Grk “O Theophilus,” but the usage of the vocative in Acts with ὦ (w) is unemphatic, following more the classical idiom (see ExSyn 69).