On the basis of the apostolic witness, testimony to the resurrection of Jesus is given in the following verses. The Good News Translation has slightly rearranged the Greek sentence structure of these two verses in order to make clear the relationship between the giving and the fulfillment of the promise.

To bring the Good News may be equivalent to “speak the Good News to you” or “announce the Good News to you.” What follows may be understood as direct discourse, since this is the substance, in a sense, of the Good News.

What God promised our ancestors translates “the promises which came to the ancestors,” but this merely represents a Jewish way of describing the divine activity without mention of God’s name.

In place of for us, who are their descendants, some manuscripts have “for our descendants” while still others have “for their descendants.” The manuscript evidence strongly favors the reading “for our descendants,” but this makes little sense in the context. If the promise was made to our ancestors, then one would expect the promise to be fulfilled to their descendants. The other two possibilities are however, so appropriate to the context that one wonders why any change was made if either of these was the original reading. As the UBS committee on the Greek text has concluded, there is a serious degree of doubt regarding the original reading of the text at this point.

In these verses the pronouns our and us provide serious difficulties for languages which make a clear-cut distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person pronouns. The pronoun our in the phrase our ancestors must refer only to the ancestors of the Jews who were present, including part of the audience and the speaker. But it is also obvious that what God has … done for us must include the Gentile hearers as well as those who were Jews participating in this meeting. However, the reference to us becomes complex because of the clause who are their descendants. Some persons, of course, will interpret the clause who are their descendants as being both physical and spiritual. But in languages where very rigid distinctions are made between inclusive and exclusive first person plural, this type of expression can be particularly difficult and misleading. In some languages these difficult and complexly related clauses are rendered as “what God promised the ancestors of the Jews he would do, he has now done for us who are their descendants and for all others” or “… and for the Gentiles.” Only in this way can the message delivered by Paul be at all relevant to the Gentiles who were worshipping God (v. 26).

By raising Jesus to life translates the same verb as was used in 3.26; but whereas in the earlier passage the reference was to God’s sending Jesus into the world, the reference in the present context is taken by the Good News Translation to be to the resurrection. Many translations remain ambiguous (Revised Standard Version “by raising Jesus”; see also Phillips), while some, as the Good News Translation, make the reference explicit (New English Bible “raising Jesus from the dead”; see also Jerusalem Bible).

In a number of languages, however, it is not possible simply to tack on the clause by raising Jesus to life. It must frequently be expressed as a separate clause “God has done this by raising Jesus to life” or “God has done this by causing Jesus to live again.”

As a testimony to the reality of the resurrection, an appeal is made not only to the authority of the eyewitnesses but also to the testimony of Scripture. The quotation from Psalm 2.7 occurs also in Hebrews 1.5, where it has reference to the exaltation of Jesus. Here it refers to his resurrection, while the first part of the quote, you are my Son, appears also in the accounts of Jesus’ baptism. I have become your Father (so also Jerusalem Bible, Moffatt, An American Translation*) is much more natural for English speakers than “I have begotten you.”

In a number of languages one cannot so neatly speak of “becoming a father.” One can, however, say “today I make you my son” and this is often regarded as the closest natural equivalent; in fact, it is the only way in which this can be said without some reference which would be understood as being primarily sexual.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .