translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ACT

label: NET study note

text: Caesarea was a city on the coast of Palestine south of Mount Carmel (not Caesarea Philippi). See the note on Caesarea in Acts 10:1 . map For location see Map2-C1 ; Map4-B3 ; Map5-F2 ; Map7-A1 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: Six witnesses is three times more than what would normally be required. They could confirm the events were not misrepresented by Peter.


text: At the beginning is an allusion to and Pentecost. The beginning is a way to refer to the start of the period of the realization of Jesus’ promise in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8 . Peter was arguing that God gave Gentiles the same benefits he gave the Jews at the start of their mission.


text: The word of the Lord is a technical expression in OT literature, often referring to a divine prophetic utterance (e.g., Gen 15:1 , Isa 1:10 , Jonah 1:1 ). In the NT it occurs 15 times: 3 times as ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου ( rJhma tou kuriou ; here and in Luke 22:61 , 1 Pet 1:25 ) and 12 times as λόγος τοῦ κυρίου ( logo" tou kuriou ; Acts 8:25; 13:44, 48, 49; 15:35, 36; 16:32; 19:10, 20 ; 1 Thess 1:8, 4:15 ; 2 Thess 3:1 ). As in the OT, this phrase focuses on the prophetic nature and divine origin of what has been said.


text: John…Spirit. This remark repeats Acts 1:5 .


text: That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.


text: Here the summary phrase for responding to the gospel is the repentance that leads to life. Note how the presence of life is tied to the presence of the Spirit (cf. John 4:7-42; 7:37-39 ).


text: In the Greek text the phrase even to the Gentiles is in an emphatic position.


text: The phrase over Stephen means in connection with Stephen’s death. See Acts 8:1 b-3.


text: Phoenicia was an area along the Mediterranean coast north of Palestine.


text: Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). This was probably the third largest city in the Greco-Roman world (Alexandria in Egypt was the second largest, and Rome the largest) and was the seat of government in Syria. Five miles away was a major temple to Artemis, Apollo, and Astarte, major pagan deities. map For location see JP1-F2 ; JP2-F2 ; JP3-F2 ; JP4-F2 .


text: Cyprus was a large island in the Mediterranean off the south coast of Asia Minor.


text: Cyrene was a city on the northern African coast west of Egypt.


text: Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19 .


text: The statement that some men from Cyprus and Cyrene…began to speak to the Greeks shows that Peter’s experience of reaching out to the Gentiles was not unique.


text: Again, the expression turned is a summary term for responding to the gospel.


text: Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19 . Again the Jerusalem church exercised an oversight role.


text: The term Christians appears only here, in Acts 26:28 , and 1 Pet 4:16 in the NT.


text: Prophets are mentioned only here and in 13:1 and 21:10 in Acts.


text: Came down from Jerusalem. Antioch in Syria lies due north of Jerusalem. In Western languages it is common to speak of north as “up” and south as “down,” but the NT maintains the Hebrew idiom which speaks of any direction away from Jerusalem as down (since Mount Zion was thought of in terms of altitude).


text: Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19 . map For location see JP1-F2 ; JP2-F2 ; JP3-F2 ; JP4-F2


text: This famine is one of the firmly fixed dates in Acts. It took place from a.d. 45-48. The events described in chap. of Acts occurred during the early part of that period.


text: This is best taken as a parenthetical note by the author. Claudius was the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, known as Claudius, who ruled from a.d. 41-54.