Acts 13:41

13:41 ‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! ¹ 

For I am doing a work in your days,

a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” ² 

Acts 15:11

15:11 On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through ³  the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they are.” ⁴ 

Acts 19:4

19:4 Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, ⁵  that is, in Jesus.”

---

¹ tn Or “and die!”

² sn A quotation from Hab 1:5. The irony in the phrase even if someone tells you, of course, is that Paul has now told them. So the call in the warning is to believe or else face the peril of being scoffers whom God will judge. The parallel from Habakkuk is that the nation failed to see how Babylon’s rising to power meant perilous judgment for Israel.

³ tn Or “by.”

⁴ tn Or “Jesus, just as they are.” BDAG 1016-17 s.v. τρόπος 1 translates καθ᾿ ὃν τρόπον (kaq’ Jon tropon) here as “in the same way as.”

sn In the same way as they are. Here is an interesting reversal of the argument. Jews are saved by grace (without law), as Gentiles are.

⁵ sn These disciples may have had their contact with John early on in the Baptist’s ministry before Jesus had emerged. This is the fifth time Luke links John the Baptist and Jesus (Acts 1:5; 11:16; 13:25; 18:25).