4:25
The Greek of the this verse is “in a very confused state” according to Metzger (A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament p. 279). In this case we can see an Aramaic text behind the Greek. The oldest Greek manuscripts have ὁ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν διὰ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου στόματος Δαυεὶδ παιδός σου εἰπών this Greek is a jumble of chaotic words. Literally “The of the our father, by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of David Your servant, said…” The translators do their best with “who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said,”. Charles Cutler Torrey reconstructed an underlying Aramaic of:
היא די אבונא לפום רוחא די קודשא דויד עבדך אמר
“That which our father David Your servant, by the command of the Holy Spirit, said…” where the Greek translator had mistaken היא (that) for הוא (he) creating confused Greek. The original Hebrew behind the Aramaic would thus have been:
את אשר אבינו לפי רוח הקודש דוד עבדך אמר
11:27-30
Then one of them, named Agabus,.stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the talmidim, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brothers dwelling in Judea. This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.”
This doesn’t make sense at all. Why would those in Antioch send relief to those dwelling *in Judea*, if the famine was to strike all *the world* (οικουμενην) And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. They would be facing famine themselves. The solution lies in the fact that the word for “world” in the Aramaic Peshitta manuscripts is ERA (Strong’s #772), the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word ERETZ (Strong’s 776). This word can mean “world” (as in Proverbs. 19:4), “earth” (as in Dan. 2:35), or “land” (as in Dan. 9:15), and is often used as a euphemism for “The Land of Israel” (as in Dan. 9:6). Certainly the word here is not meant to mean “world,” but “Land of Israel.” in fact Josephus mentioned just such a famine that struck *Judea* in the first years of Claudius’s reign (Antiquities 20:5:2). This is a good example of a passage that doesn’t make sense in the Greek but only makes sense when we look at it in Hebrew and Aramaic.
15:7
The Greek reads ὑμεῖς ἐπίστασθε ὅτι ἀφ’ ἡμερῶν ἀρχαίων ἐν ὑμῖν ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεὸς διὰ τοῦ στόματός μου ἀκοῦσαι τὰ ἔθνη τὸν λόγον τοῦ εὐαγγελίου καὶ πιστεῦσαι, “you know that from early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.” There are several problems with the Greek text here. To begin with the phrase ἐν ὑμῖν “among you” seems out of place. The phrase ἀφ’ ἡμερῶν ἀρχαίων “from early days” does not fit here. It certainly cannot refer to a recent event like Acts 10. Finally the Greek verb ἐξελέξατο “choose” is missing an object. The whole statement in the Greek is a terrible mess. The problem is that the Greek translator translated the Hebrew (or an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew) too literally, creating problems with the Greek syntax. The underlying Hebrew may be reconstructed as אתה יודע כי מן ימים העולם בחר אלהים אתך כי ישמעו הגוים על פי דבר הבשורה ואמינו. “You know that from the days of the world, God has chosen you that the Gentiles will hear according to the goodnews and believe.”Here Kefa is referring to the Jewish people as the people chosen to bring the Goodnews to the Gentiles. The Greek translator mistook על פי as “by my mouth ” instead of idiomatically as “according to”. This sheds new light on the whole passage.
Under Construction