Acts 17:19-21

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Acts 17:19 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2. Acts 17:19 tn Or “to the council of the Areopagus.” See also the term in v. 22.sn The Areopagus has been traditionally understood as reference to a rocky hill near the Acropolis in Athens, although this place may well have been located in the marketplace at the foot of the hill (L&N 93.412; BDAG 129 s.v. ῎Αρειος πάγος). This term does not refer so much to the place, however, as to the advisory council of Athens known as the Areopagus, which dealt with ethical, cultural, and religious matters, including the supervision of education and controlling the many visiting lecturers. Thus it could be translated the council of the Areopagus. See also the term in v. 22.
3. Acts 17:20 tn BDAG 684 s.v. ξενίζω 2 translates the substantival participle ξενίζοντα (xenizonta) as “astonishing things Ac 17:20.”
4. Acts 17:20 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.
5. Acts 17:21 tn The imperfect verb ηὐκαίρουν (ēukairoun) has been translated as a customary or habitual imperfect.
6. Acts 17:21 tn BDAG 406-7 s.v. εὐκαιρέω has “used to spend their time in nothing else than telling Ac 17:21.”
7. Acts 17:21 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. The reference to newness may be pejorative.