Discovery BoxActs 3:25 
Context3:25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, 1 saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants 2 all the nations 3 of the earth will be blessed.’ 4
Acts 20:35
Context20:35 By all these things, 5 I have shown you that by working in this way we must help 6 the weak, 7 and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” 8
1 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
2 tn Or “in your offspring”; Grk “in your seed.”
sn In your descendants (Grk “in your seed”). Seed has an important ambiguity in this verse. The blessing comes from the servant (v. 26), who in turn blesses the responsive children of the covenant as the scripture promised. Jesus is the seed who blesses the seed.
3 tn Or “families.” The Greek word πατριά (patria) can indicate persons of succeeding generations who are related by birth (“lineage,” “family”) but it can also indicate a relatively large unit of people who make up a sociopolitical group and who share a presumed biological descent. In many contexts πατριά is very similar to ἔθνος (eqnos) and λαός (laos). In light of the context of the OT quotation, it is better to translate πατριά as “nations” here.
4 sn A quotation from Gen 22:18.
5 sn The expression By all these things means “In everything I did.”
6 tn Or “must assist.”
7 tn Or “the sick.” See Eph 4:28.
8 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.
