Acts 21:20

[Eoghan]

Can anyone explain why the number of Jewish believers is numbered in the thousands when the text clearly numbers them in the tens of thousands? At first glance this appears anti-semitic but is there an alternative explanation?

ACTS 21:20

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Here's A.T. Robertson's explanation:

Old word for ten thousand (Act.19:19) and then an indefinite number like our “myriads” (this very word) as Lk.12:1; Act.21:20; Jud.1:14; Rev.5:11; Rev.9:16.​

As far as I can tell from the NT usage, the word is simply a "plural" term. The word is put here for "a great number" of Jewish believers.

What if there were only "18"-thousand? Would it NOT fit the case, because that's not quite a second "10"? In fact, the word would be no less ideal in that case, than a case of "180"-thousand.

There is a modifying word there, translated "how many." So the sense of the phrase is simply indefinite. If they had translated "at least ten thousand," that would have given a poorer sense of the original.

But I do believe your "anti-semitic" concern is not germane.

 

[Jimmy the Greek]

I like the NKJV:

And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law;

But virtually every other translation has "how many thousands." So the indefinite sense mentioned above must certainly have merit.

 

[Rangerus]

The Greek is translated as "myriads". However a quick word study of "myriads" from the Etymology Dictionary (see first quote) we find the word's origin came into being rather late (1555.) So when the KJV was written, it was a new word that probably meant either a specific number "ten thousand" or an unspecific "innumerable, countless" number.

Since the number of converts was neither ten thousand specifically, nor innumerable and countless, (as in Genesis 22:17 where Abraham's seed was to be multiplied as "the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." the writers probably chose to simply use the word "thousands" which would still imply a very large number without overstating, nor understating the intent.

Here using the word "thousands" is not meant to be an accounting, but rather simply is used to illustrate the number was of a great quantity. The actual number is of little importance to the statement.

1555, from M.Fr. myriade, from L.L. myrias (gen. myriadis) "ten thousand," from Gk. myrias (gen. myriados) "ten thousand," from myrios "innumerable, countless," of unknown origin. Specific use is usually in translations from Gk. or Latin.

John Gill:

how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; there were many thousands converted at Jerusalem upon the first preaching of the Gospel, after Christ's ascension; see Act_2:41 and the number might be much increased since; though it may be, that reference is had not only to the number of the members of the church at Jerusalem, but to all the believing Jews in Judea, who were now come up to Jerusalem, to keep the feast of Pentecost; since it is in the Greek, "how many myriads there are", and one myriad contains ten thousand:

Adam Clarke's Commentary:

Act 21:20
How many thousands - Ποσαι μυριαδες; How many myriads, how many times 10,000. This intimates that there had been a most extraordinary and rapid work even among the Jews; but what is here spoken is not to be confined to the Jews of Jerusalem, but to all that had come from different parts of the land to be present at this pentecost.

Albert Barnes Commentary:

How many thousands - The number of converts at this time must have been very great. Twenty-five years before this, 3,000 had been converted at one time Acts 2, and afterward the number had swelled to some more thousands, Act_4:4. The assertion that there were then “many thousands,” implies that the work so signally begun on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem had not ceased, and that many more had been converted to the Christian faith.

The People's NT:

Thou seest, brother, now many thousands . . . believe. The Greek reads: "How many tens thousands." There were not only many thousands of Christians in the Jerusalem church, but many thousands of Jewish Christians who had come up to the feast of Pentecost. Twenty-seven years before there were five thousand men who believed in Jerusalem (Act_4:4).

 

[Eoghan]

myriad - Jude 14 - ten thousand

myriad - Acts 21:20 -thousands (of Jews)

if you want to say thousands you use

chilades - Revelation 20

Brethren we have underestimated the numbers of Messianic believers in Acts by a factor of ten (- an order of magnitude?)

 

[Eoghan]

Why?

Why ten thousand angels (KJV) but only a thousand Jews? I say again why the inconsistency in translation? - an order of magnitude!

 

[MW]

Why ten thousand angels (KJV) but only a thousand Jews? I say again why the inconsistency in translation? - an order of magnitude!

The inconsistency is in the person reading the translation. "How many thousands" does not equate to "a thousand." It may in fact refer to one hundred thousand; in which case "ten thousand" would be small in comparison.