Acts 11:1 - Who is hanging out with the apostles?
Shocking news! Gentiles have received the Holy Spirit!
“Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God.”
The apostles and some other people heard this amazing news. Which other people were those?
In the Greek, the word is “adelphoi”, which may be translated generally “siblings” or specifically “brothers” if you know that only male siblings are intended.
So, what do you think happened? Who do you think would have heard the news?
| Translation/Language: | Date: | Phrase: | Approach: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original Greek text | adelphoi | ||
| Popular translations: | |||
| King James Version (KJV) | 1611 | brethren | Male |
| American Standard Version (ASV) | 1901 | brethren | Male |
| The Living Bible (TLB) | 1971 | other brothers | Male |
| New King James Version (NKJV) | 1982 | brethren | Male |
| New International Version – 1984* | 1984 | brothers | Male |
| New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) | 1989 | believers | Paraphrase |
| Good News Translation (GNT/GNB/TEV) | 1992 | other believers | Paraphrase |
| Contemporary English Version (CEV) | 1995 | followers | Paraphrase |
| New Living Translation (NLT) | 1996 | other believers | Paraphrase |
| New International Version (NIV) | 2011 | believers | Paraphrase |
| Contemporary English Bible (CEB) | 2011 | brothers and sisters | Inclusive |
| English Standard Version (ESV) | 2016 | brothers | Male |
| Christian Standard Bible (CSB) | 2017 | brothers and sisters | Inclusive |
| The Message (MSG) | 2018 | friends | Paraphrase |
| New American Standard Bible (NASB) | 2020 | brothers and sisters | Inclusive |
| NRSV Updated Edition (NRSVUE) | 2021 | brothers and sisters | Inclusive |
| Specialty translations: | |||
| God’s Word (GW) | 1995 | believers | Paraphrase |
| New Century Version (NCV) | 2005 | believers | Paraphrase |
| The Inclusive Bible (TIB) | 2009 | community | Paraphrase |
| Expanded Bible (EXB) | 2011 | believers [brothers] | Paraphrase |
| Names of God (NOG) | 2011 | believers | Paraphrase |
| New Testament for Everyone (NTE) | 2011 | brothers and sisters | Inclusive |
| The Passion Translation (TPT) | 2011 | believers | Paraphrase |
| New English Translation (NET) | 2011 | brothers | Male |
| First Nations Version (FNV) | 2021 | other followers | Paraphrase |
Could it have been just the men? Is it possible that only the Christian men in Judea heard this news?
It is theoretically possible that all of the women were wearing goofy disguises, and therefore no one realized that they heard the news about Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit. I mean, I can’t rule it out entirely. But wow, I am having to do more and more work to come up with rationalizations for these weird translations.
We know that there were women in the Christian community, because they have been mentioned throughout the book of Acts, sometime even by name (e.g. Acts 1:14). There were enough women who were specifically widows that organizing the distribution of food (and perhaps other resources) to them was a whole thing (Acts 6:1). We do not find out in Acts chapter 10 that all of the women have suddenly gotten up and left, so presumably they are still around in Acts 11.
So, if there are lots of women in the community (and there are), why on earth would they not hear the news? Was it a secret? It doesn’t sound like it was a secret.
Therefore, it is pretty weird to assume that only men would have heard the news.
Once again, the real issue here is that plenty of translators persist in pretending that “brothers” actually includes sisters.
Aside: NRSV vs. NRSVUE
The 1989 NRSV has “believers”, which I classify as a “paraphrase”, because it’s assuming that the term “siblings” is being used metaphorically, to refer to all the Christian believers.
The 2021 updated edition, though, uses “brothers and sisters”, which is more literal, although not as literal as “siblings” would be.
In both cases, the effect is inclusive, but the change in approach is mildly interesting.