Passage

Acts 4.33

Book: Acts · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

31. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken wherein they were gathered together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness. 32. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul: and not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

33. And with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

For neither was there among them any that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, 35. and laid them at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto each, according as any one had need. (Acts 4:31-35, ASV)

WEB

31. When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. 32. The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

33. With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was on them all.

For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 35. and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and distribution was made to each, according as anyone had need. (Acts 4:31-35, WEB)

KJV

31. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. 32. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

33. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, 35. And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. (Acts 4:31-35, KJV)

YLT

31. And they having prayed, the place was shaken in which they were gathered together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and were speaking the word of God with freedom, 32. and of the multitude of those who did believe the heart and the soul was one, and not one was saying that anything of the things he had was his own, but all things were to them in common.

33. And with great power were the apostles giving the testimony to the rising again of the Lord Jesus, great grace also was on them all,

for there was not any one among them who did lack, for as many as were possessors of fields, or houses, selling [them], were bringing the prices of the thing sold, 35. and were laying them at the feet of the apostles, and distribution was being made to each according as any one had need. (Acts 4:31-35, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Luke, as narrator
Audience: Theophilus and Luke's readers
Location: Jerusalem
Time period: the early months of the Jerusalem community, c. AD 30

Theological reading

And with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

Luke's summary identifies the content of apostolic preaching in a single phrase: the witness of the resurrection. Not the ethics of Jesus, not his parables, not a programme of social reform, all of which the same author records elsewhere. The public message of the earliest church, as its own historian describes it, was testimony to an event.

Martyrion is courtroom vocabulary. The apostles are functioning as witnesses giving evidence, which matches the qualification Peter laid down at 1:22 and explains why the office was staffed the way it was.

The verse also pairs power with grace in a way Luke does deliberately. Verse 32 has described the community's unity and shared possessions, verse 34 will say there was no needy person among them, and the testimony sits in the middle of that. The preaching and the common life are presented as a single phenomenon rather than as a message plus an optional ethic.

For apologetic use, the value is in what the earliest sources say the movement was about. A community claiming a resurrection, in the city where it was said to have occurred, within months, staking its public identity on eyewitness attestation, is a difficult thing to account for on any theory that the resurrection claim developed slowly. See Minimal Facts Argument and Pre-Pauline Creeds.

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.

G0386 - anastasis, anastasis, Strong's G0386
G5485 - charis, charis, Strong's G5485
G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, Strong's G2962
G2424 - Iesous, Iesous, Strong's G2424
G3956 - pas, pas, Strong's G3956

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Lexicon:

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.