Acts 7:43

7:43 But you took along the tabernacle ¹  of Moloch ²  and the star of the ³  god Rephan, ⁴  the images you made to worship, but I will deport ⁵  you beyond Babylon.’ ⁶ 

Acts 12:15

12:15 But they said to her, “You’ve lost your mind!” ⁷  But she kept insisting that it was Peter, ⁸  and they kept saying, ⁹  “It is his angel!” ¹⁰ 

Acts 19:15

19:15 But the evil spirit replied to them, ¹¹  “I know about Jesus ¹²  and I am acquainted with ¹³  Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁴ 

Acts 28:26

28:26 when he said,

‘Go to this people and say,

“You will keep on hearing, ¹⁵  but will never understand,

and you will keep on looking, ¹⁶  but will never perceive.

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¹ tn Or “tent.”

sn A tabernacle was a tent used to house religious objects or a shrine (i.e., a portable sanctuary).

² sn Moloch was a Canaanite deity who was believed to be the god of the sky and the sun.

³ tc ‡ Most mss, including several important ones (Ì⁷⁴ א A C E Ψ 33 1739 Ï h p vg sy^h mae bo Cyr), have ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) here, in conformity with the LXX of Amos 5:26. But other significant and diverse witnesses lack the pronoun: The lack of ὑμῶν in B D 36 453 gig sy^p sa Ir^lat Or is difficult to explain if it is not the original wording here. NA²⁷ has the word in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

⁴ sn Rephan (῾Ραιφάν, RJaifan) was a pagan deity. The term was a name for Saturn. It was variously spelled in the mss (BDAG 903 s.v. has Rompha as an alternate spelling). The references cover a range of deities and a history of unfaithfulness.

⁵ tn Or “I will make you move.”

⁶ sn A quotation from Amos 5:25-27. This constituted a prediction of the exile.

⁷ sn “You’ve lost your mind!” Such a response to the miraculous is not unusual in Luke-Acts. See Luke 24:11; Acts 26:25. The term μαίνομαι (mainomai) can have the idea of being “raving mad” or “totally irrational” (BDAG 610 s.v.). It is a strong expression.

⁸ tn Grk “she kept insisting that the situation was thus” (cf. BDAG 422 s.v. ἔχω 10.a). Most translations supply a less awkward English phrase like “it was so”; the force of her insistence, however, is that “it was Peter,” which was the point under dispute.

⁹ tn The two imperfect tense verbs, διϊσχυρίζετο (diiscurizeto) and ἔλεγον (elegon), are both taken iteratively. The picture is thus virtually a shouting match between Rhoda and the rest of the believers.

¹⁰ sn The assumption made by those inside, “It is his angel,” seems to allude to the idea of an attending angel (cf. Gen 48:16 LXX; Matt 18:10; Test. Jacob 1:10).

¹¹ tn Grk “answered and said to them.” The expression, redundant in English, has been simplified to “replied.”

¹² tn Grk “Jesus I know about.” Here ᾿Ιησοῦν (Ihsoun) is in emphatic position in Greek, but placing the object first is not normal in contemporary English style.

¹³ tn BDAG 380 s.v. ἐπίσταμαι 2 has “know, be acquainted with τινά…τὸν Παῦλον Ac 19:15.” Here the translation “be acquainted with” was used to differentiate from the previous phrase which has γινώσκω (ginwskw).

¹⁴ sn But who are you? This account shows how the power of Paul was so distinct that parallel claims to access that power were denied. In fact, such manipulation, by those who did not know Jesus, was judged (v. 16). The indirect way in which the exorcists made the appeal shows their distance from Jesus.

¹⁵ tn Grk “you will hear with hearing” (an idiom).

¹⁶ tn Or “seeing”; Grk “you will look by looking” (an idiom).