Footnotes

1. Acts 5:33 sn The only other use of this verb for anger (furious) is Acts 7:54 after Stephen’s speech.
2. Acts 5:33 sn Wanted to execute them. The charge would surely be capital insubordination (Exod 22:28).
3. Acts 5:34 sn A Pharisee was a member of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.
4. Acts 5:34 sn Gamaliel was a famous Jewish scholar and teacher mentioned here in v. 34 and in Acts 22:3. He had a grandson of the same name and is referred to as “Gamaliel the Elder” to avoid confusion. He is quoted a number of times in the Mishnah, was given the highest possible title for Jewish teachers, Rabba (cf. John 20:16), and was highly regarded in later rabbinic tradition.
5. Acts 5:34 tn Grk “standing up in the council, ordered.” The participle ἀναστάς (anastas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
6. Acts 5:34 tn Or “the Sanhedrin” (the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).
7. Acts 5:35 tn Grk “said to them”; the referent (the council) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8. Acts 5:35 tn Or “Israelite men,” although this is less natural English. The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anēr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it is highly unlikely that this is a generic usage, since Gamaliel was addressing the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council, which would have been exclusively male.
9. Acts 5:35 tn Or “men, be careful.”
10. Acts 5:36 tn Grk “For before these days.”
11. Acts 5:36 tn Grk “who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he,” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point.
12. Acts 5:36 tn Grk “and they came to nothing.” Gamaliel’s argument is that these two insurrectionists were taken care of by natural events.
13. Acts 5:37 tn Or “registration.”
14. Acts 5:37 tn The verb ἀφίστημι (aphistēmi) as a transitive means “cause to revolt” as used in Josephus, Ant. 8.7.5 (8.198), 20.5.2 (20.102); see BDAG 157 s.v. 1.
15. Acts 5:38 tn Here ἀνθρώπων (anthrōpōn) has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).
16. Acts 5:38 tn Or “it will be put to an end.”
17. Acts 5:39 tn This is expressed in a first class condition, in contrast to the condition in v. 38b, which is third class. As such, v. 39 is rhetorically presented as the more likely option.
18. Acts 5:39 tn According to L&N 39.32, the verb εὑρεθῆτε (heurethēte, an aorist passive subjunctive) may also be translated “find yourselves”—“lest you find yourselves fighting against God.” The Jewish leader Gamaliel is shown contemplating the other possible alternative about what is occurring.
19. Acts 5:39 tn Grk “They were convinced by him.” This passive construction was converted to an active one (“He convinced them”) in keeping with contemporary English style. The phrase “He convinced them” is traditionally placed in Acts 5:40 by most English translations; the standard Greek critical text (represented by NA²⁸ and UBS⁵) places it at the end of v. 39.