Acts 8:34-36

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Acts 8:34 tn Grk “answered and said.” The redundant participle ἀποκριθείς (apokritheis) has not been translated.
2. Acts 8:34 tn Grk “I beg you,” “I ask you.”
3. Acts 8:34 sn About himself, or about someone else? It is likely in 1st century Judaism this would have been understood as either Israel or Isaiah.
4. Acts 8:35 tn Grk “opening his mouth” (a Semitic idiom for beginning to speak in a somewhat formal manner). The participle ἀνοίξας (anoixas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
5. Acts 8:35 sn Beginning with this scripture. The discussion likely included many of the scriptures Acts has already noted for the reader in earlier speeches. At the least, readers of Acts would know what other scriptures might be meant.
6. Acts 8:36 tn Or “What prevents me.” The rhetorical question means, “I should get baptized, right?”
7. Acts 8:36 tc A few later mss (E 36 323 453 945 1739 1891) add, with minimal differences in wording, 8:37 “He said to him, ‘If you believe with your whole heart, you may.’ He replied, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’” Verse 37 is lacking in P^45,74 א A B C 33 614 vg sy^p,h co. It is clearly not a part of the original text of Acts. The variant is significant in showing how some in the early church viewed the necessity of a confession of faith. The present translation follows NA²⁸ in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.