Acts 4:3-5

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Acts 4:3 tn Grk “And” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the logical sequence of events.
2. Acts 4:3 tn Or “they arrested”; Grk “they laid hands on.”
3. Acts 4:3 tn Or “prison,” “custody.”
4. Acts 4:4 tn Or “had heard.”
5. Acts 4:4 tn Or “word.”
6. Acts 4:4 tn In the historical setting it is likely that only men are referred to here. The Greek term ἀνήρ (anēr) usually refers to males or husbands rather than people in general. Thus to translate “of the people” would give a false impression of the number, since any women and children were apparently not included in the count.
7. Acts 4:5 tn Grk “It happened that on the next day.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
8. Acts 4:5 tn Or “and scribes.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateus) as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.sn Experts in the law would have been mostly like the Pharisees in approach. Thus various sects of Judaism were coming together against Jesus.
9. Acts 4:5 tn Or “law assembled,” “law met together.”