1:13a

When they arrived: The Greek is literally “when they entered.” The word “Jerusalem” is implied from 1:12. For example:

They entered the city (Good News Translation)

they went to the upper room where they were staying: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the upper room indicates that this house had a large room built on top of the main part of the house. In NT times some houses had two stories like this one. Often the room upstairs had its own staircase outside. Also, the room was probably large (the event in 1:15 may have been in this room).

It is also implied that they walked from the city gate to the house where the upstairs room was. For example:

they went to the upstairs room of the house where they were staying (New Living Translation (2004))

they were staying: The apostles were from Galilee. So they probably rented the room. By this time they had probably stayed there for 6 weeks or so.

1:13b–d

Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James: This list identifies who the pronoun “they” refers to in 1:13a. This is the first time that these men are mentioned by name in Acts. The Greek makes three groups with the names by using “and” between some names. For example:

Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. (English Standard Version)

But some languages must use and between every name in this list for a natural translation.

1:13b

The Greek of 1:13b begins with a word that literally means “The/Those.” The Berean Standard Bible does not translate this word, but indicates that the list of names is connected to the pronoun “they” (1:13a) by using a colon (:) at the end of 1:13a. If you choose to translate this Greek word, here are some other ways to translate it:

there were (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon (known as the Zealot), and Judas son of James were there. (New Century Version)
-or-
They were

1:13d

James son of Alphaeus: There were two disciples with the name “James.” In order to distinguish this James from the first James (1:13b), people referred to this James as James son of Alphaeus. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

Alphaeus’s son James
-or-
James who was the son of Alphaeus

In some languages the father’s name is used as a surname. For example:

James Alphaeus

Simon the Zealot: There were also two apostles with the name “Simon.” In order to distinguish this Simon from (Simon) Peter (1:13b), people referred to this Simon as Simon the Zealot.

the Zealot: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Zealot means “someone who was zealous or passionate.” At that time in Israel it referred to people zealous for Jews to be free from the control of Rome.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

the Zealous One
-or-
the Patriot (Good News Translation)
-or-
the nationalist/revolutionary

Judas son of James: This Judas was also known as Thaddeus. (See Matthew 10:3 and Mark 3:18.) His father James was a different person from the two apostles named James. In some languages a literal translation would imply that this James was one of the apostles. If that is true in your language, you may want to:

• Indicate that this James is a different person. For example:

Judas son of ⌊another⌋ James

• Explain in a footnote. For example:

This James was a different person from the two apostles named James.

In some languages the father’s name is used as a surname. For example:

Judas James

© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.