25:6 After Festus 12 had stayed 13 not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea, 14 and the next day he sat 15 on the judgment seat 16 and ordered Paul to be brought.
1 tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Or “more willing to learn.” L&N 27.48 and BDAG 404 s.v. εὐγενής 2 both use the term “open-minded” here. The point is that they were more receptive to Paul’s message.
3 sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).
map For location see JP1-C1; JP2-C1; JP3-C1; JP4-C1.
4 tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”
5 tn Grk “who received.” Here the relative pronoun (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“they”) preceded by a semicolon, which is less awkward in contemporary English than a relative clause at this point.
6 tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.
7 tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.
8 sn The expression By all these things means “In everything I did.”
9 tn Or “must assist.”
10 tn Or “the sick.” See Eph 4:28.
11 sn The saying is similar to Matt 10:8. Service and generosity should be abundant. Interestingly, these exact words are not found in the gospels. Paul must have known of this saying from some other source.
12 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Festus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Grk “Having stayed.” The participle διατρίψας (diatriya") has been taken temporally.
14 sn Caesarea was a city on the coast of Palestine south of Mount Carmel (not Caesarea Philippi). See the note on Caesarea in Acts 10:1.
map For location see Map2-C1; Map4-B3; Map5-F2; Map7-A1; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
15 tn Grk “sitting down…he ordered.” The participle καθίσας (kaqisa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
16 tn Although BDAG 175 s.v. βῆμα 3 gives the meaning “tribunal” for this verse, and a number of modern translations use similar terms (“court,” NIV; “tribunal,” NRSV), since the bhma was a standard feature in Greco-Roman cities of the time, there is no need for an alternative translation here.
sn The judgment seat (βῆμα, bhma) was a raised platform mounted by steps and sometimes furnished with a seat, used by officials in addressing an assembly or making pronouncements, often on judicial matters. The judgment seat was a familiar item in Greco-Roman culture, often located in the agora, the public square or marketplace in the center of a city.