Acts 1:1-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Acts 1:1 tn Or “produced,” Grk “made.”
2. Acts 1:1 tn Or “first.” The translation “former” is preferred because “first” could imply to the modern English reader that the author means that his previous account was the first one to be written down. The Greek term πρῶτος (prōtos) does not necessarily mean “first” in an absolute sense, but can refer to the first in a set or series. That is what is intended here—the first account (known as the Gospel of Luke) as compared to the second one (known as Acts).
3. Acts 1:1 tn The Greek word λόγος (logos) is sometimes translated “book” (NRSV, NIV) or “treatise” (KJV). A formal, systematic treatment of a subject is implied, but the word “book” may be too specific and slightly misleading to the modern reader, so “account” has been used.sn The former account refers to the Gospel of Luke, which was “volume one” of the two-volume work Luke-Acts.
4. Acts 1:1 tn Grk “O Theophilus,” but the usage of the vocative in Acts with ὦ (ō) is unemphatic, following more the classical idiom (see ExSyn 69).
5. Acts 1:2 tn The words “to heaven” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied from v. 11. Several modern translations (NIV, NRSV) supply the words “to heaven” after “taken up” to specify the destination explicitly mentioned later in 1:11.
6. Acts 1:2 tn Or “commands.” Although some modern translations render ἐντειλάμενος (enteilamenos) as “instructions” (NIV, NRSV), the word implies authority or official sanction (G. Schrenk, TDNT 2:545), so that a word like “orders” conveys the idea more effectively. The action of the temporal participle is antecedent (prior) to the action of the verb it modifies (“taken up”).
7. Acts 1:2 tn Or “through.”
8. Acts 1:3 tn Grk “to them”; the referent (the apostles) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9. Acts 1:3 sn After his suffering is a reference to Jesus’ crucifixion and the abuse which preceded it.
10. Acts 1:3 tn Grk “during forty days.” The phrase “over a forty-day period” is used rather than “during forty days” because (as the other NT accounts of Jesus’ appearances make clear) Jesus was not continually visible to the apostles during the forty days, but appeared to them on various occasions.
11. Acts 1:3 sn The kingdom of God is a major theme of Jesus’ teaching. The nature of the kingdom of God in the NT and in Jesus’ teaching has long been debated by interpreters and scholars, with discussion primarily centering around the nature of the kingdom (earthly, heavenly, or both) and the kingdom’s arrival (present, future, or both). An additional major issue concerns the relationship between the kingdom of God and the person and work of Jesus himself. See Luke 6:20; 11:20; 17:20-21.
12. Acts 1:4 tn Or “While he was assembling with them,” or “while he was sharing a meal with them.” There are three basic options for translating the verb συναλίζω (sunalizō): (1) “Eat (salt) with, share a meal with”; (2) “bring together, assemble”; (3) “spend the night with, stay with” (see BDAG 964 s.v.). The difficulty with the first option is that it does not fit the context, and this meaning is not found elsewhere. The second option is difficult because of the singular number and the present tense. The third option is based on a spelling variation of συναυλιζόμενος (sunaulizomenos), which some minuscules actually read here. The difference in meaning between (2) and (3) is not great, but (3) seems to fit the context somewhat better here.
13. Acts 1:4 tn Grk “ordered them”; the command “Do not leave” is not in Greek but is an indirect quotation in the original (see note at end of the verse for explanation).
14. Acts 1:4 tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text (direct objects in Greek were frequently omitted when clear from the context).
15. Acts 1:4 tn Grk “the,” with the article used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
16. Acts 1:4 tn Grk “for the promise of the Father.” Jesus is referring to the promised gift of the Holy Spirit (see the following verse).
17. Acts 1:4 tn Grk “While he was with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for ‘what my Father promised, which you heard about from me.’” This verse moves from indirect to direct discourse. This abrupt change is very awkward, so the entire quotation has been rendered as direct discourse in the translation.
18. Acts 1:5 tn In the Greek text v. 5 is a continuation of the previous sentence, which is long and complicated. In keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
19. Acts 1:5 tn The pronoun is plural in Greek.
20. Acts 1:6 tn Grk “they began to ask him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. The imperfect tense of the Greek verb ἠρώτων (ērōtōn) has been translated as an ingressive imperfect.
21. Acts 1:7 tn Grk “It is not for you to know.”
22. Acts 1:8 tn Or “to the ends.”