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Acts 04 General Notes
Structure and formatting
Some translations set poetry farther to the right than the rest of the text to show that it is poetry. The ULB does this with the poetry that is quoted from the Old Testament in 4:25-26.
Special concepts in this chapter
Unity
The first Christians wanted very much to be united. They wanted to believe the same things and share everything they owned and help those who needed help.
"Signs and wonders"
This phrase refers to things that only God can do. The Christians wanted God to do what only he can do so that people would believe that what they said about Jesus was true.
Important figures of speech in this chapter
Cornerstone
The cornerstone was the first piece of stone that people put down when they were building a building. This is a metaphor for the most important part of something, the part on which everything depends. To say that Jesus is the cornerstone of the church is to say that nothing in the church is more important than Jesus and that everything about the church depends on Jesus. (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-metaphor and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/faith)
Other possible translation difficulties in this chapter
Name
"There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). With these words Peter was saying that no other person who has ever been on the earth or will ever be on earth can save people.