11:1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings 3 normally conduct wars, 4 David sent out Joab with his officers 5 and the entire Israelite army. 6 They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. 7
1:1 I wrote 8 the former 9 account, 10 Theophilus, 11 about all that Jesus began to do and teach
1 tn Heb “and lay.”
2 tn Heb “as you live and as your soul lives.”
3 tc Codex Leningrad (B19A), on which BHS is based, has here “messengers” (הַמַּלְאכִים, hammal’khim), probably as the result of contamination from the occurrence of that word in v. 4. The present translation follows most Hebrew
4 tn Heb “go out.”
5 tn Heb “and his servants with him.”
6 tn Heb “all Israel.”
7 tn The disjunctive clause contrasts David’s inactivity with the army’s activity.
map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
8 tn Or “produced,” Grk “made.”
9 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 (prwtos) 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).
10 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.
11 tn Grk “O Theophilus,” but the usage of the vocative in Acts with ὦ (w) is unemphatic, following more the classical idiom (see ExSyn 69).