Discovery BoxActs 10:30 
Context10:30 Cornelius 1 replied, 2 “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock in the afternoon, 3 I was praying in my house, and suddenly 4 a man in shining clothing stood before me
Acts 23:23
Context23:23 Then 5 he summoned 6 two of the centurions 7 and said, “Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea 8 along with seventy horsemen 9 and two hundred spearmen 10 by 11 nine o’clock tonight, 12
1 tn Grk “And Cornelius.” 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.
2 tn Grk “said.”
3 tn Grk “at the ninth hour.” Again, this is the hour of afternoon prayer.
4 tn Grk “and behold.” The interjection ἰδού (idou) is difficult at times to translate into English. Here it has been translated as “suddenly” to convey the force of Cornelius’ account of the angel’s appearance.
5 tn Grk “And.” Since this represents a response to the reported ambush, καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the logical sequence.
6 tn Grk “summoning…he said.” The participle προσκαλεσάμενος (proskalesameno") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
7 sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.
8 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. This was a journey of about 65 mi (just over 100 km).
map For location see Map2 C1; Map4 B3; Map5 F2; Map7 A1; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
9 tn Or “cavalrymen.”
10 tn A military technical term of uncertain meaning. BDAG 217 s.v. δεξιολάβος states, “a word of uncertain mng., military t.t., acc. to Joannes Lydus…and Theophyl. Sim., Hist. 4, 1 a light-armed soldier, perh. bowman, slinger; acc. to a scholion in CMatthaei p. 342 body-guard….Spearman Goodspd., NRSV; ‘security officer’, GDKilpatrick, JTS 14, ’63, 393f.”
sn Two hundred soldiers…along with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen. The resulting force assembled to guard Paul was almost a full cohort. The Roman commander was taking no chances, but was sending the issue up the chain of command to the procurator to decide.
11 tn Grk “from.”
12 tn Grk “from the third hour of the night.”
