Daniel 3:2-3

3:2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent out a summons to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, ¹  and all the other authorities of the province to attend the dedication of the statue that he ²  had erected. 3:3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other provincial authorities assembled for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had erected. They were standing in front of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had erected. ³ 

Daniel 3:1

Daniel’s Friends Are Tested

3:1 ⁴ King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden ⁵  statue made. ⁶  It was ninety feet ⁷  tall and nine feet ⁸  wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

1 Samuel 17:46-47

17:46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand! I will strike you down and cut off your head. This day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land. Then all the land will realize that Israel has a God 17:47 and all this assembly will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves! For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will deliver you into our hand.”

1 Samuel 17:2

17:2 Saul and the Israelite army ⁹  assembled and camped in the valley of Elah, where they arranged their battle lines to fight against ¹⁰  the Philistines.

Kisah Para Rasul 19:19

19:19 Large numbers ¹¹  of those who had practiced magic ¹²  collected their books ¹³  and burned them up in the presence of everyone. ¹⁴  When ¹⁵  the value of the books was added up, it was found to total fifty thousand silver coins. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 83:18

83:18 Then they will know ¹⁷  that you alone are the Lord, ¹⁸ 

the sovereign king ¹⁹  over all the earth.

Mazmur 96:7-9

96:7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the nations,

ascribe to the Lord splendor and strength!

96:8 Ascribe to the Lord the splendor he deserves! ²⁰ 

Bring an offering and enter his courts!

96:9 Worship the Lord in holy attire! ²¹ 

Tremble before him, all the earth!

Yesaya 26:11

26:11 O Lord, you are ready to act, ²² 

but they don’t even notice.

They will see and be put to shame by your angry judgment against humankind, ²³ 

yes, fire will consume your enemies. ²⁴ 

Kisah Para Rasul 2:6-12

2:6 When this sound ²⁵  occurred, a crowd gathered and was in confusion, ²⁶  because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 2:7 Completely baffled, they said, ²⁷  “Aren’t ²⁸  all these who are speaking Galileans? 2:8 And how is it that each one of us hears them ²⁹  in our own native language? ³⁰  2:9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia, ³¹  2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, ³²  and visitors from Rome, ³³  2:11 both Jews and proselytes, ³⁴  Cretans and Arabs – we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done!” ³⁵  2:12 All were astounded and greatly confused, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

Kisah Para Rasul 26:26

26:26 For the king knows about these things, and I am speaking freely ³⁶  to him, ³⁷  because I cannot believe ³⁸  that any of these things has escaped his notice, ³⁹  for this was not done in a corner. ⁴⁰ 

[3:2]  ¹ sn The specific duties of the seven types of officials listed here (cf. vv. 3, 27) are unclear. The Aramaic words that are used are transliterations of Akkadian or Persian technical terms whose exact meanings are uncertain. The translations given here follow suggestions set forth in BDB.

[3:2]  ² tn Aram “Nebuchadnezzar the king.” The proper name and title have been replaced by the relative pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:3]  ³ tc The LXX and Theodotion lack the words “that Nebuchadnezzar had erected.”

[3:1]  ⁴ sn The LXX introduces this chapter with the following chronological note: “in the eighteenth year of.” Such a date would place these events at about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8). However, there seems to be no real basis for associating the events of Daniel 3 with this date.

[3:1]  ⁵ sn There is no need to think of Nebuchadnezzar’s image as being solid gold. No doubt the sense is that it was overlaid with gold (cf. Isa 40:19; Jer 10:3-4), with the result that it presented a dazzling self-compliment to the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar’s achievements.

[3:1]  ⁶ sn According to a number of patristic authors, the image represented a deification of Nebuchadnezzar himself. This is not clear from the biblical text, however.

[3:1]  ⁷ tn Aram “sixty cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 90 feet (27.4 m) high.

[3:1]  ⁸ tn Aram “six cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 9 feet (2.74 m) wide.

[3:1]  sn The dimensions of the image (ninety feet high and nine feet wide) imply that it did not possess normal human proportions, unless a base for the image is included in the height dimension. The ancient world knew of other tall statues. For example, the Colossus of Rhodes – the huge statue of Helios which stood (ca. 280-224 B.C.) at the entrance to the harbor at Rhodes and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – was said to be seventy cubits (105 ft or 32 m) in height, which would make it even taller than Nebuchadnezzar’s image.

[17:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “the men of Israel” (so KJV, NASB); NAB, NIV, NRSV “the Israelites.”

[17:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to meet.”

[19:19]  ¹¹ tn BDAG 472 s.v. ἱκανός 4.a has “many, quite a few” for ἱκανοί (Jikanoi) in this verse.

[19:19]  ¹² tn On this term see BDAG 800 s.v. περίεργος 2.

[19:19]  ¹³ tn Or “scrolls.”

[19:19]  ¹⁴ tn Or “burned them up publicly.” L&N 14.66 has “‘they brought their books together and burned them up in the presence of everyone’ Ac 19:19.”

[19:19]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “and when.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

[19:19]  ¹⁶ tn Or “fifty thousand silver drachmas” (about $10,000 US dollars). BDAG 128 s.v. ἀργύριον 2.c states, “ἀργυρίου μυριάδας πέντε 50,000 (Attic silver) drachmas Ac 19:19.” Another way to express the value would be in sheep: One drachma could buy one sheep. So this many drachmas could purchase a huge flock of sheep. A drachma also equals a denarius, or a day’s wage for the average worker. So this amount would be equal to 50,000 work days or in excess of 8,300 weeks of labor (the weeks are calculated at six working days because of the Jewish cultural context). The impact of Christianity on the Ephesian economy was considerable (note in regard to this the concerns expressed in 19:26-27).

[83:18]  ¹⁷ tn After the preceding jussives (v. 17), the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose (“so that they may know”) or result.

[83:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “that you, your name [is] the Lord, you alone.”

[83:18]  ¹⁹ tn Traditionally “the Most High.”

[96:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the splendor of [i.e., “due”] his name.”

[96:9]  ²¹ tn Or “in holy splendor.”

[26:11]  ²² tn Heb “O Lord, your hand is lifted up.”

[26:11]  ²³ tn Heb “They will see and be ashamed of zeal of people.” Some take the prefixed verbs as jussives and translate the statement as a prayer, “Let them see and be put to shame.” The meaning of the phrase קִנְאַת־עָם (qin’at-’am, “zeal of people”) is unclear. The translation assumes that this refers to God’s angry judgment upon people. Another option is to understand the phrase as referring to God’s zealous, protective love of his covenant people. In this case one might translate, “by your zealous devotion to your people.”

[26:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “yes, fire, your enemies, will consume them.” Many understand the prefixed verb form to be jussive and translate, “let [fire] consume” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV). The mem suffixed to the verb may be enclitic; if a pronominal suffix, it refers back to “your enemies.”

[2:6]  ²⁵ tn Or “this noise.”

[2:6]  ²⁶ tn Or “was bewildered.”

[2:7]  ²⁷ tn Grk “They were astounded and amazed, saying.” The two imperfect verbs, ἐξίσταντο (existanto) and ἐθαύμαζον (eqaumazon), show both the surprise and the confusion on the part of the hearers. The verb ἐξίσταντο (from ἐξίστημι, existhmi) often implies an illogical perception or response (BDAG 350 s.v. ἐξίστημι): “to be so astonished as to almost fail to comprehend what one has experienced” (L&N 25.218).

[2:7]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Behold, aren’t all these.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[2:8]  ²⁹ tn Grk “we hear them, each one of us.”

[2:8]  ³⁰ tn Grk “in our own language in which we were born.”

[2:9]  ³¹ tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.

[2:10]  ³² tn According to BDAG 595 s.v. Λιβύη, the western part of Libya, Libya Cyrenaica, is referred to here (see also Josephus, Ant. 16.6.1 [16.160] for a similar phrase).

[2:10]  ³³ map For location see JP4 A1.

[2:11]  ³⁴ sn Proselytes refers to Gentile (i.e., non-Jewish) converts to Judaism.

[2:11]  ³⁵ tn Or “God’s mighty works.” Here the genitive τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou) has been translated as a subjective genitive.

[26:26]  ³⁶ tn BDAG 782 s.v. παρρησιάζομαι 1 states, “speak freely, openly, fearlessly…likew. in the ptc. w. a verb of saying foll.…παρρησιασάμενοι εἶπαν 13:46. – 26:26.” This could refer to boldness in speaking here.

[26:26]  ³⁷ tn Grk “to whom I am speaking freely.” The relative pronoun (“whom”) was replaced by the personal pronoun (“him”) to simplify the translation.

[26:26]  ³⁸ tn Grk “I cannot convince myself.” BDAG 792 s.v. πείθω 3.a states, “οὐ πείθομαι w. acc. and inf. I cannot believe Ac 26:26” (see also BDAG 586 s.v. λανθάνω).

[26:26]  ³⁹ tn BDAG 586 s.v. λανθάνω states, “λανθάνειν αὐτὸν τούτων οὐ πείθομαι οὐθέν I cannot bring myself to believe that any of these things has escaped his notice Ac 26:26.”

[26:26]  ⁴⁰ tn This term refers to a hidden corner (BDAG 209 s.v. γωνία). Paul’s point is that these events to which he refers were not done in a secret, hidden place, tucked away outside of view. They were done in public for all the world to see.