Discovery BoxActs 7:51 
Context7:51 “You stubborn 1 people, with uncircumcised 2 hearts and ears! 3 You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors 4 did!
Acts 7:57
Context7:57 But they covered their ears, 5 shouting out with a loud voice, and rushed at him with one intent.
Acts 17:20
Context17:20 For you are bringing some surprising things 6 to our ears, so we want to know what they 7 mean.”
1 sn Traditionally, “stiff-necked people.” Now the critique begins in earnest.
2 tn The term ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmhtoi, “uncircumcised”) is a NT hapax legomenon (occurs only once). See BDAG 101-2 s.v. ἀπερίτμητος and Isa 52:1.
3 tn Or “You stubborn and obstinate people!” (The phrase “uncircumcised hearts and ears” is another figure for stubbornness.)
4 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
5 sn They covered their ears to avoid hearing what they considered to be blasphemy.
6 tn BDAG 684 s.v. ξενίζω 2 translates the substantival participle ξενίζοντα (xenizonta) as “astonishing things Ac 17:20.”
7 tn Grk “these things”; but since the referent (“surprising things”) is so close, the repetition of “these things” sounds redundant in English, so the pronoun “they” was substituted in the translation.
