Passage

Acts 2.22

Book: Acts · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

20. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come, That great and notable day. 21. And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

22. Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know;

him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay: 24. whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. (Acts 2:20-24, ASV)

WEB

20. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. 21. It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

22. “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know,

him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; 24. whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. (Acts 2:20-24, WEB)

KJV

20. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

22. Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. (Acts 2:20-24, KJV)

YLT

20. the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the day of the Lord, the great and illustrious; 21. and it shall be, every one, whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved.

22. 'Men, Israelites! hear these words, Jesus the Nazarene, a man approved of God among you by mighty works, and wonders, and signs, that God did through him in the midst of you, according as also ye yourselves have known;

this one, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, being given out, having taken by lawless hands, having crucified, ye did slay; 24. whom God did raise up, having loosed the pains of the death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it, (Acts 2:20-24, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Peter
Audience: the Pentecost crowd
Location: Jerusalem
Time period: c. AD 30

Theological reading

Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by mighty works and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.

The closing clause is the one to notice: as ye yourselves also know. Peter appeals to his audience's own memory, in the city where the events happened, weeks after they happened, in front of people who were positioned to contradict him. That is a rhetorical move only available to a speaker who believes the facts are public.

The Christology of the verse is deliberately restrained and it is characteristic of the earliest preaching. Jesus is a man approved of God, and the miracles are works God did by him. Peter does not begin where later creeds end. He begins with what his hearers can be expected to grant and builds toward verse 36, where God has made him both Lord and Christ. Sermons in Acts consistently show this shape, which is one reason they are widely regarded as preserving early tradition rather than being retrojections of developed doctrine.

Two evidential points follow. The miracles are treated as common knowledge rather than as claims requiring defence, which matches the fact that Jesus's opponents in the Gospels dispute the source of his power rather than its occurrence. And the primitive Christological vocabulary is the opposite of what a later inventor would produce. See Historicity of Jesus.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G3056 - logos, logos, Strong's G3056
G1492 - oida, oida, Strong's G1492
G2424 - Iesous, Iesous, Strong's G2424
G2316 - theos, theos, Strong's G2316

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Christ Was Made (Misread Proof-Texts), via Acts 2.22-36
Pentecost, via Acts 2.14-40
Preaching to Non-Believers, via Acts 2.14-41
Resurrection of Jesus - Minimal Facts Case, via Acts 2.14-41
The Muslim Defense, via Acts 2.22-24, Acts 2.22-39

Lexicon:

H6213 - asah

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.