Act 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his
voice, and spake forth unto them, saying, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye
that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my
words. ASV
Act 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his
voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at
Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: KJV
Act 2:14 But standing up with the Eleven, Peter lifted up his
voice and spoke out to them, Men, Jews, and all those living in
Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words: LITV
Act 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the Eleven, lifted up his
voice and said to them, Men, Jews, and all who dwell at Jerusalem, let
this be known to you, and listen to my words. MKJV
Act 2:14 and Peter having stood up with the eleven, lifted up his
voice and declared to them, `Men, Jews! and all those dwelling in
Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and harken to my sayings, YLT
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COMMENTARY
"Jews, and all who dwell at Jerusalem"... cannot both be Jews ladies
& gentilemenz! Otherwise we have an unnecessary redundancy. There
were Gentiles present.
We have here a translation problem! Notice that the ASV & KJV have the phrase; "Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem"... while the others have; "Men, Jews, and all who dwell at Jerusalem".
In the first instance we have ~Two~ classifications of people, namely; 1- men of Judaea; 2- all ye that dwell at Jerusalem.
In the second instance we have ~Three~ classifications of people, namely; 1- Men; 2- Jews; 3- all who dwell at Jerusalem.
Now... according to the rules of Logic ~both~ cannot be right. The
verse gives us ~Either~ Two or Three classifications of people but it
cannot be giving us both at the same time... unless you want to believe
that Two equals Three! So what then is the correct understanding of
this verse? To find out all we have to do is look at the Greek text. It
happens that the Greek language has two different words for the
words "Jew" and "Judaea". Actually they are different Forms of the same
Greek word and have different meanings.
The Greek word "Ioudaios"; Strong's # 2453 means;
1) Jewish, belonging to the Jewish nation
2) Jewish as respects to birth, origin, religion
Thayer Lexicon.
It means a Jew. A Person. It is translated as such 195 times out of 196
in the AV. This verse is the only one that has "Judaea" in some
translations.
The Greek word "Ioudaia"; Strong's # 2449, is the -Feminine- form of the same word, which gives it a different meaning. The meaning is;
1) in a narrower sense, to the southern portion of Palestine lying on
this side of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, to distinguish it from
Samaria, Galilee, Peraea, and Idumaea
2) in a broader sense, referring to all Palestine.
Thayer Lexicon.
It means... a ~Place~, not a Person. It is translated as "Judaea"
44 times out of 44 in the AV. It is correctly translated as "Judaea" in
verse 9 of this passage. For your interest here is the phrase from the
Greek Interlinier;
Act 2:14
σταθεις 2476(5685)[BUT
STANDING] δε 1161[UP]
πετρος 4074[PETER]
συν 4862[WITH] τοις 3588[THE]
ενδεκα 1733[ELEVEN]
επηρεν 1869(5656) την
3588[LIFTED UP] φωνην 5456[VOICE]
αυτου 846[HIS]
και 2532[AND]
απεφθεγξατο
669(5662)[SPOKE FORTH] αυτοις
846[TO THEM,]
*ανδρες 435[MEN]
ιουδαιοι 2453[JEWS]
και 2532[AND] οι 3588[YE WHO]
κατοικουντες
2730(5723)[INHABIT]
ιερουσαλημ
2419[JERUSALEM]*
Notice "Ioudaioi" with the Strong's number 2453 and the interlinier rendering as "Jews" which is correct!
απαντες
537[ALL,] τουτο 5124[THIS]
υμιν 5213[TO YOU]
γνωστον 1110[KNOWN]
εστω
2077(5749)[LET BE,] και 2532[AND]
ενωτισασθε
1801(5663) τα 3588[GIVE
HEED TO] ρηματα 4487[WORDS]
μου 3450[MY :]
Why some translations have "Judaea" here instead of "Jews" is a
mystery... unless of course the translators held to Covenant Theology
and wanted everyone in Acts 2 to be Jews.
So the Greek word in this verse is "Jews" not "Judaea" and the correct
rendering is; "Men, Jews, and all those living in Jerusalem" as in LITV
& others. The word for "Judaea" is found in vs 9 but not in this
verse. The word in this vs is the same word in vss 5 & 10! It
means JEWS! Not "Judaea"!!
So what? so this;... the proper translation is "Men, Jews, and
all those living in Jerusalem" which shows 3 separate classifications
of ~Persons~. 1; Men... 2; Jews... 3; all those living in
Jerusalem. That means Peter was addressing both Jews and non-Jews...
i.e. Gentiles. The KJ; "Ye men of Judaea" destroys this distinction and
allows for the argument that these were all Jews whereas the proper
rendering does -not- allow it.
The population at the time of Peter's sermon consisted of Jews,
proselytes [Gentiles who had been circumcized & were Jewish
converts] and non-Jews, i.e. Uncircumcized, Unproselytized,
Unconverted, Unsaved Gentiles. The rest of the context bears this out.
Acts
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