Translating Acts 5:32

Question

Acts 5:32 Peter says,

“And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him.”

My reading of Greek grammar tells me that obey is a present participle that should normally denote an action simultaneous with the principal verb gave, which is in the aorist indicative. This would translate to, “Whom God gave to those who obeyed [listened to] him.” The reference would be to a previous outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Simple English Bible translation, “God has given the Spirit to those who obeyed him”). Peter refers to Pentecost.

Prior to Pentecost, the apostles had certainly been responsive to the message of Christ, as opposed to most of the Jewish authorities. Therefore, when the Spirit came on Pentecost it did not fall on the recalcitrant Jewish leaders, but on those who had shown receptivity to the gospel, the apostles. This would not be an invitation to respond to the gospel, but a rebuke of the Jewish leaders. This would account for their subsequent rage (v. 33).

If this analysis is incorrect, please explain.

Answer 1

You are treating the participle «τοῖς πειθαρχοῦσιν» as a circumstantial participle, but the syntax precludes that due to the presence of the article τοῖς. Circumstantial participles lack the definite article.

As Herbert Weir Smyth wrote,¹

That being said, contextually, the author is referring to the apostles and disciples being given the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. As a historian, he is concerned with narrating his understanding of what others eye-witnessed and passed down to him.²

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Footnotes

        ^{1 Smyth, p. 456–457, § 2054. For more on the circumstantial participle, see also, Funk, § 845.
        2 cf. Luke 1:2–3}

References

Funk, Robert W. A Beginning-Intermediate Grammar of Hellenistic Greek. 2nd ed. Missoula: Scholar’s, 1973.

Smyth, Herbert Weir. A Greek Grammar for Colleges. New York: American Book, 1920.

Answer 2

Let me quote a series of very literal translations of Acts 5:32 -

• NASB: And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
• BLB: And we are witnesses of these things, and also the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those obeying Him."
• YLT: and we are His witnesses of these sayings, and the Holy Spirit also, whom God gave to those obeying him.'
• Green: And we are His witnesses of these things, and also the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those obeying Him."

[Note that the presence of the pronoun "His" is due to a difference between the USB5/NA28 text (BLB & NASB) vs the Byzantine text (YLT & Green).]

If I translated this verse, it would produce a result identical to the BLB.

The operative verb here is πειθαρχοῦσιν (peitharchousin) is present participle active dative masculine plural. The only valid way to translate πειθαρχοῦσιν is "obeying" - BDAG defines πειθαρχέω (the lexical form) as: "obey".

Strongs concordance offers this meaning: "obey one in authority, conform to advice, obey, follow".

The verb only occurs in four places: Acts 5:29, 32, 27:21, Titus 3:1, with the same meaning.

In the grammatical construction Luke uses in Acts 5:32 we have:

the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those obeying Him.

The thrust of Luke's statement is that the gift of the Holy Spirit was given and continues to be given to those who continue to obey God. There is no suggestion here that once the spirit is given the gift cannot be withdrawn or rejected. Quite the contrary, the gift of the Holy Spirit was given and continues to be given only while obedience to God occurs.

Indeed, there are instances of where the Holy Spirit is rejected: Acts 6:10, 7:51, Eph 4:30, Gal 5:17, 1 Thess 5:19, etc.

Answer 3

The translation of Acts 5:32 given at the start is sound. Nobody has any quarrel with it, nor do I gather from your comments that you disagree with it. Then you say that your reading of Greek grammar for that verse gives you a translation of, “Whom God gave to those who obeyed [listened to] him.” Your translation accords with the first one given (apart from introducing the word [listened]) because the meaning of "them that obey him" incorporates past obedience. The verse does, indeed, refer back to obedience prior to the Pentecost outpouring. But nobody for a second would think that it did not also incorporate on-going obedience! The question of Greek grammar may be precise in upholding the present tense of the verse, but I for one would not try to use it to say you are wrong to put that verse as "them that obeyed him", past tense.

What does puzzle me is introducing the rage of the Jewish leaders (vs. 33), claiming that it was the evidence of the Holy Spirit in the apostles that caused a desire to slay them. The text in question clearly states that it was because the apostles were witnesses to Christ's resurrection. This is stated in vss. 30, 31 and 32. Because Peter and the other apostles were obeying God rather than men, they had received the Holy Spirit. The inference is that the religious leaders had not, and were not obeying God, yes, but the cause of their wrath was the irrefutable proof of eyewitnesses that Christ had risen from the grave. They thought that by killing those eyewitnesses, they could get rid of the evidence.

I mention this because even if Greek grammar does not support your point here, you are not wrong to say the Holy Ghost was given to those apostles because they had obeyed God. Nor are you wrong to say that "when the Spirit came on Pentecost it did not fall on the recalcitrant Jewish leaders, but on those who had shown receptivity to the gospel". Where your analysis might be weak is in saying it was the rebuke given to the religious leaders that turned their thoughts to murder. No, it was being confronted with powerful eyewitness testimony to Christ triumphing over their killing of him, by Christ's resurrection, that was the cause of their rage. But that point is not linked to Greek grammar, I would suggest.