Luke 24:49

24:49 And look, I am sending you ¹  what my Father promised. ²  But stay in the city ³  until you have been clothed with power ⁴  from on high.”

Acts 2:4

2:4 All ⁵  of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages ⁶  as the Spirit enabled them. ⁷ 

Acts 2:33

2:33 So then, exalted ⁸  to the right hand ⁹  of God, and having received ¹⁰  the promise of the Holy Spirit ¹¹  from the Father, he has poured out ¹²  what you both see and hear.

Acts 10:45-46

10:45 The ¹³  circumcised believers ¹⁴  who had accompanied Peter were greatly astonished ¹⁵  that ¹⁶  the gift of the Holy Spirit ¹⁷  had been poured out ¹⁸  even on the Gentiles, 10:46 for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising ¹⁹  God. Then Peter said,

Acts 11:16-18

11:16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, ²⁰  as he used to say, ²¹  ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ²²  11:17 Therefore if God ²³  gave them the same gift ²⁴  as he also gave us after believing ²⁵  in the Lord Jesus Christ, ²⁶  who was I to hinder ²⁷  God?” 11:18 When they heard this, ²⁸  they ceased their objections ²⁹  and praised ³⁰  God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance ³¹  that leads to life even to the Gentiles.” ³² 

[24:49]  ¹ tn Grk “sending on you.”

[24:49]  ² tn Grk “the promise of my Father,” with τοῦ πατρός (tou patros) translated as a subjective genitive. This is a reference to the Holy Spirit and looks back to how one could see Messiah had come with the promise of old (Luke 3:15-18). The promise is rooted in Jer 31:31 and Ezek 36:26.

[24:49]  ³ sn The city refers to Jerusalem.

[24:49]  ⁴ sn Until you have been clothed with power refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. What the Spirit supplies is enablement. See Luke 12:11-12; 21:12-15. The difference the Spirit makes can be seen in Peter (compare Luke 22:54-62 with Acts 2:14-41).

[2:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “And all.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[2:4]  ⁶ tn The Greek term is γλώσσαις (glwssai"), the same word used for the tongues of fire.

[2:4]  ⁷ tn Grk “just as the spirit gave them to utter.” The verb ἀποφθέγγομαι (apofqengomai) was used of special utterances in Classical Greek (BDAG 125 s.v.).

[2:33]  ⁸ tn The aorist participle ὑψωθείς (Juywqei") could be taken temporally: “So then, after he was exalted…” In the translation the more neutral “exalted” (a shorter form of “having been exalted”) was used to preserve the ambiguity of the original Greek.

[2:33]  ⁹ sn The expression the right hand of God represents supreme power and authority. Its use here sets up the quotation of Ps 110:1 in v. 34.

[2:33]  ¹⁰ tn The aorist participle λαβών (labwn) could be taken temporally: “So then, after he was exalted…and received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit.” In the translation the more neutral “having received” was used to preserve the ambiguity of the original Greek.

[2:33]  ¹¹ tn Here the genitive τοῦ πνεύματος (tou pneumato") is a genitive of apposition; the promise consists of the Holy Spirit.

[2:33]  ¹² sn The use of the verb poured out looks back to 2:17-18, where the same verb occurs twice.

[10:45]  ¹³ tn Grk “And the.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[10:45]  ¹⁴ tn Or “The Jewish Christians”; Grk “The believers from the circumcision.”

[10:45]  ¹⁵ sn The Jewish Christians who were with Peter were greatly astonished because they thought the promise of the Spirit would be limited only to those of Israel. God’s plan was taking on fresh dimensions even as it was a reflection of what the prophets had promised.

[10:45]  ¹⁶ tn Or “because.”

[10:45]  ¹⁷ tn That is, the gift consisting of the Holy Spirit. Here τοῦ πνεύματος (tou pneumato") is a genitive of apposition; the gift consists of the Spirit.

[10:45]  ¹⁸ sn The gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out. Compare the account in Acts 2, especially 2:33. Note also Joel 2:17-21 and Acts 11:15-18.

[10:46]  ¹⁹ tn Or “extolling,” “magnifying.”

[11:16]  ²⁰ sn The word of the Lord is a technical expression in OT literature, often referring to a divine prophetic utterance (e.g., Gen 15:1, Isa 1:10, Jonah 1:1). In the NT it occurs 15 times: 3 times as ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου (rJhma tou kuriou; here and in Luke 22:61, 1 Pet 1:25) and 12 times as λόγος τοῦ κυρίου (logo" tou kuriou; Acts 8:25; 13:44, 48, 49; 15:35, 36; 16:32; 19:10, 20; 1 Thess 1:8, 4:15; 2 Thess 3:1). As in the OT, this phrase focuses on the prophetic nature and divine origin of what has been said.

[11:16]  ²¹ tn The imperfect verb ἔλεγεν (elegen) is taken as a customary imperfect.

[11:16]  ²² sn John…Spirit. This remark repeats Acts 1:5.

[11:17]  ²³ tc Codex Bezae (D) and {a few other Western witnesses} here lack ὁ θεός (Jo qeo", “God”), perhaps because these scribes considered the Holy Spirit to be the gift of Christ rather than the gift of God; thus leaving the subject implicit would naturally draw the reader back to v. 16 to see the Lord Jesus as the bestower of the Spirit.

[11:17]  ²⁴ sn That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.

[11:17]  ²⁵ tn Or “gave us when we believed”; or “gave us after we believed”; or “gave us who believed”; or “gave them when they believed the same gift as he also gave us.” The aorist dative plural participle πιστεύσασιν (pisteusasin) can be understood in several different ways: (1) It could modify ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “us”) or αὐτοῖς (autois, “them”). Proximity (it immediately follows ἡμῖν) would suggest that it belongs with ἡμῖν, so the last option (“gave them when they believed the same gift he also gave us”) is less likely. (2) The participle could be either adverbial or adjectival, modifying ἡμῖν. This decision is primarily a contextual one. The point Peter made is not whether or not the Gentiles believed, since both groups (“us” and “they”) had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The point was whether or not the Gentiles received the Spirit when they believed, just as Jewish Christians had received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost when they believed. Translated as an adjectival participle, πιστεύσασιν only affirms the fact of belief, however, and raises somewhat of a theological problem if one realizes, “Would God have given the Gentiles the Spirit if they had not believed?” (In other words, belief in itself is a theological prerequisite for receiving the Spirit. As such, in the case of the Gentiles, it is assumed.) Thus in context it makes more sense to understand the participle πιστεύσασιν as adverbial, related to the time of belief in connection with the giving of the Spirit. (3) The participle πιστεύσασιν as a temporal participle can refer to action antecedent to the action of the main verb ἔδωκεν (edwken) or contemporaneous with it. Logically, at least, the gift of the Spirit followed belief in the case of the original Christians, who had believed before the day of Pentecost. In the case of Cornelius and his household, belief and the reception of the Spirit were virtually simultaneous. One can argue that Peter is “summarizing” the experience of Jewish Christians, and therefore the actions of belief and reception of the Spirit, while historically separate, have been “telescoped” into one (“gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed”), but to be technically accurate the participle πιστεύσασιν should be translated “gave them the same gift as he also gave us after we believed.” A number of these problems can be avoided, however, by using a translation in English that maintains some of the ambiguity of the Greek original. Thus “if God gave them the same gift as he also gave us after believing” is used, where the phrase “after believing” can refer either to “them” or to “us,” or both.

[11:17]  ²⁶ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:17]  ²⁷ tn Or “prevent,” “forbid” (BDAG 580 s.v. κωλύω 1.a). Peter’s point is that he will not stand in the way of God.

[11:18]  ²⁸ tn Grk “these things.”

[11:18]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Or “glorified.”

[11:18]  ³¹ 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]  ³² sn In the Greek text the phrase even to the Gentiles is in an emphatic position.