Acts 7:52

7:52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors ¹  not persecute? ²  They ³  killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One, ⁴  whose betrayers and murderers you have now become! ⁵ 

Acts 10:22

10:22 They said, “Cornelius the centurion, ⁶  a righteous ⁷  and God-fearing man, well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, ⁸  was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear a message ⁹  from you.”

Acts 22:14

22:14 Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors ¹⁰  has already chosen ¹¹  you to know his will, to see ¹²  the Righteous One, ¹³  and to hear a command ¹⁴  from his mouth,

Acts 24:15

24:15 I have ¹⁵  a hope in God (a hope ¹⁶  that ¹⁷  these men ¹⁸  themselves accept too) that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. ¹⁹ 

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¹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

² sn Which…persecute. The rhetorical question suggests they persecuted them all.

³ tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

⁴ sn The Righteous One is a reference to Jesus Christ.

⁵ sn Whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. The harsh critique has OT precedent (1 Kgs 19:10-14; Neh 9:26; 2 Chr 36:16).

⁶ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

⁷ tn Or “just.”

⁸ tn The phrase τοῦ ἔθνους τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων (tou eqnou" twn Ioudaiwn) is virtually a technical term for the Jewish nation (1 Macc 10:25; 11:30, 33; Josephus, Ant. 14.10.22 [14.248]). “All the Jewish people,” while another possible translation of the Greek phrase, does not convey the technical sense of a reference to the nation in English.

sn The long introduction of Cornelius by his messengers is an attempt to commend this Gentile to his Jewish counterpart, which would normally be important to do in the culture of the time.

⁹ tn Grk “hear words.”

¹⁰ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

sn The expression God of our ancestors is a description of the God of Israel. The God of promise was at work again.

¹¹ tn L&N 30.89 has “‘to choose in advance, to select beforehand, to designate in advance’…‘the God of our ancestors has already chosen you to know his will’ Ac 22:14.”

¹² tn Grk “and to see.” This καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

¹³ sn The Righteous One is a reference to Jesus Christ (Acts 3:14).

¹⁴ tn Or “a solemn declaration”; Grk “a voice.” BDAG 1071-72 s.v. φωνή 2.c states, “that which the voice gives expression to: call, cry, outcry, loud or solemn declaration (… = order, command)…Cp. 22:14; 24:21.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “having.” The participle ἔχων (ecwn) has been translated as a finite verb and a new sentence begun at this point in the translation because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence.

¹⁶ sn This mention of Paul’s hope sets up his appeal to the resurrection of the dead. At this point Paul was ignoring the internal Jewish dispute between the Pharisees (to which he had belonged) and the Sadducees (who denied there would be a resurrection of the dead).

¹⁷ tn Grk “a hope in God (which these [men] themselves accept too).” Because the antecedent of the relative pronoun “which” is somewhat unclear in English, the words “a hope” have been repeated at the beginning of the parenthesis for clarity.

¹⁸ tn Grk “that they”; the referent (these men, Paul’s accusers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹ tn Or “the unjust.”

sn This is the only mention of the resurrection of the unrighteous in Acts. The idea parallels the idea of Jesus as the judge of both the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 17:31).