Acts 5:22

5:22 But the officers ¹  who came for them ²  did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, ³ 

Acts 7:11

7:11 Then a famine occurred throughout ⁴  Egypt and Canaan, causing ⁵  great suffering, and our ⁶  ancestors ⁷  could not find food.

Acts 7:46

7:46 He ⁸  found favor ⁹  with ¹⁰  God and asked that he could ¹¹  find a dwelling place ¹²  for the house ¹³  of Jacob.

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¹ tn The Greek term ὑπηρέτης (Juphreth") generally means “servant,” but in the NT is used for many different types of servants, like attendants to a king, the officers of the Sanhedrin (as here), assistants to magistrates, and (especially in the Gospel of John) Jewish guards in the Jerusalem temple (see L&N 35.20).

² tn The words “for them” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

³ tn Grk “reported, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

⁴ tn Grk “came upon all Egypt.”

⁵ tn Grk “and,” but logically causal.

⁶ sn Our. Stephen spoke of “our” ancestors (Grk “fathers”) in an inclusive sense throughout the speech until his rebuke in v. 51, where the nation does what “your” ancestors did, at which point an exclusive pronoun is used. This serves to emphasize the rebuke.

⁷ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

⁸ tn Grk “David, who” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.

⁹ tn Or “grace.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “before,” “in the presence of.”

¹¹ tn The words “that he could” are not in the Greek text, but are implied as the (understood) subject of the infinitive εὑρεῖν (Jeurein). This understands David’s request as asking that he might find the dwelling place. The other possibility would be to supply “that God” as the subject of the infinitive: “and asked that God find a dwelling place.” Unfortunately this problem is complicated by the extremely difficult problem with the Greek text in the following phrase (“house of Jacob” vs. “God of Jacob”).

¹² tn On this term see BDAG 929 s.v. σκήνωμα a (Ps 132:5).

¹³ tc Some mss read θεῷ (qew, “God”) here, a variant much easier to understand in the context. The reading “God” is supported by א² A C E Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat sy co. The more difficult οἴκῳ (oikw, “house”) is supported by Ì⁷⁴ א* B D H 049 pc. Thus the second reading is preferred both externally because of better ms evidence and internally because it is hard to see how a copyist finding the reading “God” would change it to “house,” while it is easy to see how (given the LXX of Ps 132:5) a copyist might assimilate the reading and change “house” to “God.” However, some scholars think the reading “house” is so difficult as to be unacceptable. Others (like Lachmann and Hort) resorted to conjectural emendation at this point. Others (Ropes) sought an answer in an underlying Aramaic expression. Not everyone thinks the reading “house” is too difficult to be accepted as original (see Lake and Cadbury). A. F. J. Klijn, “Stephen’s Speech – Acts vii.2-53,” NTS 4 (1957): 25-31, compared the idea of a “house within the house of Israel” with the Manual of Discipline from Qumran, a possible parallel that seems to support the reading “house” as authentic. (For the more detailed discussion from which this note was derived, see TCGNT 308-9.)