Keluaran 3:11

3:11 Moses said ¹  to God, ²  “Who am I, that I should go ³  to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Keluaran 3:1

3:1 Now Moses ⁴  was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert ⁵  and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ⁶ 

Kisah Para Rasul 18:9-14

18:9 The Lord said to Paul by a vision ⁷  in the night, ⁸  “Do not be afraid, ⁹  but speak and do not be silent, 18:10 because I am with you, and no one will assault ¹⁰  you to harm ¹¹  you, because I have many people in this city.” 18:11 So he stayed there ¹²  a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. ¹³ 

Paul Before the Proconsul Gallio

18:12 Now while Gallio ¹⁴  was proconsul ¹⁵  of Achaia, ¹⁶  the Jews attacked Paul together ¹⁷  and brought him before the judgment seat, ¹⁸  18:13 saying, “This man is persuading ¹⁹  people to worship God in a way contrary to ²⁰  the law!” 18:14 But just as Paul was about to speak, ²¹  Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of some crime or serious piece of villainy, ²²  I would have been justified in accepting the complaint ²³  of you Jews, ²⁴ 

Matius 10:16

Persecution of Disciples

10:16 “I ²⁵  am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, ²⁶  so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Lukas 1:34

1:34 Mary ²⁷  said to the angel, “How will this be, since I have not had sexual relations with ²⁸  a man?”

[3:11]  ¹ tn Heb “And Moses said.”

[3:11]  ² sn When he was younger, Moses was confident and impulsive, but now that he is older the greatness of the task makes him unsure. The remainder of this chapter and the next chapter record the four difficulties of Moses and how the Lord answers them (11-12, 13-22; then 4:1-9; and finally 4:10-17).

[3:11]  ³ tn The imperfect tense אֵלֵךְ (’elekh) carries the modal nuance of obligatory imperfect, i.e., “that I should go.” Moses at this point is overwhelmed with the task of representing God, and with his personal insufficiency, and so in honest humility questions the choice.

[3:1]  ⁴ sn The vav (ו) disjunctive with the name “Moses” introduces a new and important starting point. The Lord’s dealing with Moses will fill the next two chapters.

[3:1]  ⁵ tn Or “west of the desert,” taking אַחַר (’akhar, “behind”) as the opposite of עַל־פְּנֵי (’al-pÿne, “on the face of, east of”; cf. Gen 16:12; 25:18).

[3:1]  ⁶ sn “Horeb” is another name for Mount Sinai. There is a good deal of foreshadowing in this verse, for later Moses would shepherd the people of Israel and lead them to Mount Sinai to receive the Law. See D. Skinner, “Some Major Themes of Exodus,” Mid-America Theological Journal 1 (1977): 31-42.

[18:9]  ⁷ sn Frequently in Acts such a vision will tell the reader where events are headed. See Acts 10:9-16 and 16:9-10 for other accounts of visions.

[18:9]  ⁸ tn BDAG 682 s.v. νύξ 1.c has “W. prep. ἐν ν. at night, in the night…Ac 18:9.”

[18:9]  ⁹ tn The present imperative here (with negation) is used (as it normally is) of a general condition (BDF §335).

[18:10]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 384 s.v. ἐπιτίθημι 2 has “to set upon, attack, lay a hand on” here, but “assault” is a contemporary English equivalent very close to the meaning of the original.

[18:10]  ¹¹ tn Or “injure.”

[18:11]  ¹² tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[18:11]  ¹³ tn See BDAG 326-27 s.v. ἐν 1.d. However, it is also possible that ἐν (en) followed by the dative here stands for the ordinary dative (“to them”).

[18:12]  ¹⁴ sn Gallio was proconsul of Achaia from a.d. 51-52. This date is one of the firmly established dates in Acts. Lucius Junius Gallio was the son of the rhetorician Seneca and the brother of Seneca the philosopher. The date of Gallio’s rule is established from an inscription (W. Dittenberger, ed., Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum 2.3 no. 8). Thus the event mentioned here is probably to be dated July-October a.d. 51.

[18:12]  ¹⁵ sn The proconsul was the Roman official who ruled over a province traditionally under the control of the Roman senate.

[18:12]  ¹⁶ sn Achaia was a Roman province created in 146 b.c. that included the most important parts of Greece (Attica, Boeotia, and the Peloponnesus).

[18:12]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “with one accord.”

[18:12]  ¹⁸ tn Although BDAG 175 s.v. βῆμα 3 gives the meaning “tribunal” for this verse and a number of modern translations use similar terms (“court,” NIV; “tribunal,” NRSV), there is no need for an alternative translation here since the bema was a standard feature in Greco-Roman cities of the time.

[18:12]  sn The judgment seat (βῆμα, bhma) was a raised platform mounted by steps and sometimes furnished with a seat, used by officials in addressing an assembly or making pronouncements, often on judicial matters. The judgment seat was a familiar item in Greco-Roman culture, often located in the agora, the public square or marketplace in the center of a city. So this was a very public event.

[18:13]  ¹⁹ tn Or “inciting.”

[18:13]  ²⁰ tn Grk “worship God contrary to.” BDAG 758 s.v. παρά C.6 has “against, contrary to” for Acts 18:13. The words “in a way” are not in the Greek text, but are a necessary clarification to prevent the misunderstanding in the English translation that worshiping God was in itself contrary to the law. What is under dispute is the manner in which God was being worshiped, that is, whether Gentiles were being required to follow all aspects of the Mosaic law, including male circumcision. There is a hint of creating public chaos or disturbing Jewish custom here since Jews were the ones making the complaint. Luke often portrays the dispute between Christians and Jews as within Judaism.

[18:14]  ²¹ tn Grk “about to open his mouth” (an idiom).

[18:14]  ²² tn BDAG 902 s.v. ῥᾳδιούργημα states, “From the sense ‘prank, knavery, roguish trick, slick deed’ it is but a short step to that of a serious misdeed, crime, villainy…a serious piece of villainy Ac 18:14 (w. ἀδίκημα).”

[18:14]  ²³ tn According to BDAG 78 s.v. ἀνέχω 3 this is a legal technical term: “Legal t.t. κατὰ λόγον ἂν ἀνεσχόμην ὑμῶν I would have been justified in accepting your complaint Ac 18:14.”

[18:14]  ²⁴ tn Grk “accepting your complaint, O Jews.”

[10:16]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Behold I.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[10:16]  ²⁶ sn This imagery of wolves is found in intertestamental Judaism; see Pss. Sol. 8:23, 30.

[1:34]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And Mary.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[1:34]  ²⁸ tn Grk “have not known.” The expression in the Greek text is a euphemism for sexual relations. Mary seems to have sensed that the declaration had an element of immediacy to it that excluded Joseph. Many modern translations render this phrase “since I am a virgin,” but the Greek word for virgin is not used in the text, and the euphemistic expression is really more explicit, referring specifically to sexual relations.