14:1 The same thing happened in Iconium 15 when Paul and Barnabas 16 went into the Jewish synagogue 17 and spoke in such a way that a large group 18 of both Jews and Greeks believed.
1 tn Grk “to them”; the referent (the apostles) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 sn After his suffering is a reference to Jesus’ crucifixion and the abuse which preceded it.
3 tn Grk “during forty days.” The phrase “over a forty-day period” is used rather than “during forty days” because (as the other NT accounts of Jesus’ appearances make clear) Jesus was not continually visible to the apostles during the forty days, but appeared to them on various occasions.
4 tn This term, ἐκκλησία (ekklhsia), is a secular use of the term that came to mean “church” in the epistles. Here a reference to an assembly is all that is intended.
5 tn Or “desert.”
6 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
7 tn Grk “fathers, who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new clause introduced by “and” was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.
8 tn Or “messages.” This is an allusion to the law given to Moses.
9 tc ‡ The first person pronoun ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “to us”) is read by A C D E Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat sy, while the second person pronoun ὑμῖν (Jumin, “to you”) is read by Ì74 א B 36 453 al co. The second person pronoun thus has significantly better external support. As well, ὑμῖν is a harder reading in this context, both because it is surrounded by first person pronouns and because Stephen perhaps “does not wish to disassociate himself from those who received God’s revelation in the past, but only from those who misinterpreted and disobeyed that revelation” (TCGNT 307). At the same time, Stephen does associate himself to some degree with his disobedient ancestors in v. 39, suggesting that the decisive break does not really come until v. 51 (where both his present audience and their ancestors are viewed as rebellious). Thus, both externally and internally ὑμῖν is the preferred reading.
10 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
11 tn Or “tent.”
sn The tabernacle was the tent used to house the ark of the covenant before the construction of Solomon’s temple. This is where God was believed to reside, yet the people were still unfaithful.
12 tn Or “desert.”
13 tn Grk “the one”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.
15 sn Iconium. See the note in 13:51.
16 tn Grk “they”; the referents (Paul and Barnabas) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
17 sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.
18 tn Or “that a large crowd.”
19 tn Or “had been taught.”
20 tn Grk “and boiling in spirit” (an idiom for great eagerness or enthusiasm; BDAG 426 s.v. ζέω).
21 tn Grk “the things.”
22 tn Grk “knowing”; the participle ἐπιστάμενος (epistameno") has been translated as a concessive adverbial participle.