Discovery BoxActs 7:6 
Context7:6 But God spoke as follows: ‘Your 1 descendants will be foreigners 2 in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years. 3
Acts 7:30
Context7:30 “After 4 forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert 5 of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 6
Acts 7:36
Context7:36 This man led them out, performing wonders and miraculous signs 7 in the land of Egypt, 8 at 9 the Red Sea, and in the wilderness 10 for forty years.
Acts 9:33
Context9:33 He found there a man named Aeneas who had been confined to a mattress for eight years because 11 he was paralyzed.
Acts 13:20-21
Context13:20 All this took 12 about four hundred fifty years. After this 13 he gave them judges until the time of 14 Samuel the prophet. 13:21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled 15 forty years.
Acts 19:10
Context19:10 This went on for two years, so that all who lived in the province of Asia, 16 both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord. 17
Acts 20:31
Context20:31 Therefore be alert, 18 remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning 19 each one of you with tears.
Acts 24:27
Context24:27 After two years 20 had passed, Porcius Festus 21 succeeded Felix, 22 and because he wanted to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. 23
1 tn Grk “that his”; the discourse switches from indirect to direct with the following verbs. For consistency the entire quotation is treated as second person direct discourse in the translation.
2 tn Or “will be strangers,” that is, one who lives as a noncitizen of a foreign country.
3 sn A quotation from Gen 15:13. Exod 12:40 specifies the sojourn as 430 years.
4 tn Grk “And after.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and contemporary English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
5 tn Or “wilderness.”
7 tn Here the context indicates the miraculous nature of the signs mentioned.
sn Performing wonders and miraculous signs. Again Moses acted like Jesus. The phrase appears 9 times in Acts (2:19, 22, 43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; 7:36; 14:3; 15:12).
8 tn Or simply “in Egypt.” The phrase “the land of” could be omitted as unnecessary or redundant.
9 tn Grk “and at,” but 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.
10 tn Or “desert.”
11 tn Since the participle κατακείμενον (katakeimenon), an adjectival participle modifying Αἰνέαν (Ainean), has been translated into English as a relative clause (“who had been confined to a mattress”), it would be awkward to follow with a second relative clause (Grk “who was paralyzed”). Furthermore, the relative pronoun here has virtually a causal force, giving the reason for confinement to the mattress, so it is best translated “because.”
12 tn The words “all this took” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to make a complete statement in English. There is debate over where this period of 450 years fits and what it includes: (1) It could include the years in Egypt, the conquest of Canaan, and the distribution of the land; (2) some connect it with the following period of the judges. This latter approach seems to conflict with 1 Kgs 6:1; see also Josephus, Ant. 8.3.1 (8.61).
13 tn Grk “And after these things.” 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.
14 tn The words “the time of” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.
15 tn The words “who ruled” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. They have been supplied as a clarification for the English reader. See Josephus, Ant. 6.14.9 (6.378).
16 tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.
sn The expression all who lived in the province of Asia is good Semitic hyperbole (see Col 1:7, “all the world”). The message was now available to the region.
17 sn The word of the Lord is a technical expression in OT literature, often referring to a divine prophetic utterance (e.g., Gen 15:1, Isa 1:10, Jonah 1:1). In the NT it occurs 15 times: 3 times as ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου (rJhma tou kuriou; Luke 22:61, Acts 11:16, 1 Pet 1:25) and 12 times as λόγος τοῦ κυρίου (logo" tou kuriou; here and in Acts 8:25; 13:44, 48, 49; 15:35, 36; 16:32; 19:20; 1 Thess 1:8, 4:15; 2 Thess 3:1). As in the OT, this phrase focuses on the prophetic nature and divine origin of what has been said.
18 tn Or “be watchful.”
19 tn Or “admonishing.”
20 tn Grk “After a two-year period.”
21 sn Porcius Festus was the procurator of Palestine who succeeded Felix; neither the beginning nor the end of his rule (at his death) can be determined with certainty, although he appears to have died in office after about two years. Nero recalled Felix in
22 tn Grk “Felix received as successor Porcius Festus.”
sn See the note on Felix in 23:26.
23 tn Grk “left Paul imprisoned.”
sn Felix left Paul in prison. Luke makes the point that politics got in the way of justice here; keeping Paul in prison was a political favor to the Jews.
