Section 5:17–42
The Jewish leaders persecuted the apostles
When the Jewish religious leaders saw the crowds of people going to the apostles, those leaders became extremely angry with the apostles. So they arrested the apostles, put them in jail, held court against them, and beat them for healing, teaching, and preaching in the name of Jesus.
Here are other possible headings for this section:
The Jewish leaders arrested the apostles, put them on trial, and released them
-or-
The apostles were persecuted
-or-
The apostles were arrested, freed, tried in court, flogged, and released
Paragraph 5:17–21b
5:17a–c
Then the high priest and all his associates…were filled with jealousy. They went out: The Greek of 5:17a–c is more literally “and/but, having arisen, the high priest and everyone who with him….were filled of/with jealousy.” Here the phrase “having arisen” corresponds to the words that the Berean Standard Bible translates as They went out (5:17c). The Greek verb “having arisen” probably connects to 5:18, so the Berean Standard Bible places these words in 5:17c, right before 5:18. It may be more natural in your language to have this verb near to 5:18. Other way to translate these words are:
As he got up, the high priest and all his associates, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18They arrested the apostles
-or-
The high priest and all his associates, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. Now/And they arose and 18arrested the apostles
The Greek words “having arisen” indicate that the high priest prepared to start an action. It probably refers to any preparations for arresting the apostles (5:18a) rather than being filled with jealousy (5:17b). Here are some other ways to translate this:
Then the high priest rose up (New American Bible, Revised Edition)
-or-
Then the high priest took action (New Revised Standard Version)
5:17a
Then the high priest and all his associates, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as who belonged to the party of the Sadducees is literally “being the party/group of the Sadducees.” There are two interpretation issues here regarding this Greek phrase.
Issue 1: Interpretation about the size of the group
There are two ways to interpret the Greek about how many Sadducees these words refer to:
(1) The phrase the high priest and all his associates refers to only some of the Sadducees. For example:
The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees (New Living Translation (2004))
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New Living Translation (2004), Contemporary English Version)
(2) The phrase the high priest and all his associates refers to all of the Sadducees. For example:
But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sadducees (Revised Standard Version)
(Revised Standard Version, King James Version, New American Standard Bible, English Standard Version, God’s Word, NET Bible, Revised English Bible, New Century Version, New American Bible, Revised Edition)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1) because the Greek seems to be describing the high priest and all his associates as Sadducees rather than stating this group and only this group were Sadducees.
Issue 2: Interpretation who is included in the group
There are two ways to interpret the Greek about whether or not the high priest is a Sadducee:
(1) The high priest is a Sadducee. For example:
The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees (New Living Translation (2004))
(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004), Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, New Century Version)
(2) The high priest is not a Sadducee. For example:
The chief priest and the whole party of the Sadducees who were with him (God’s Word)
(New Jerusalem Bible, King James Version, New American Standard Bible, English Standard Version, God’s Word, NET Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because the Greek puts the high priest and all his associates together in one phrase with and, with nothing interrupting it. And this phrase occurs just before “being the party of the Sadducees.”
high priest: This refers to the leader of all the Jewish priests. See how you translated this phrase in 4:6.
all his associates: The Greek is more literally “all the ones with him.” It refers to people (probably all men) who were connected to the high priest and probably were allies religiously or politically. It could be friends, family, or advisors. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
all who were with him
-or-
his colleagues (Revised English Bible)
who belonged to the party of the Sadducees: The Greek is more literally “being the party/group of the Sadducees.” See the interpretation issues above.
Sadducees: The Sadducees were a Jewish religious group or party. See how you translated this phrase in 4:1.
5:17b
were filled with jealousy: This clause is passive. Some languages must avoid a passive clause here. For example:
were completely jealous
-or-
jealousy filled them
The Greek tense is the general tense for narrative/stories. It does not say when they began to be jealous, but it does indicate that they were full of jealousy by this time in the story.
jealousy: This refers to having bad feelings toward a person because that person has something that you want for yourself. The people of Jerusalem respected the apostles (5:13) and the apostles were doing miracles of healing (5:16). The Sadducees were doing neither and so were jealous of the apostles.
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