Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
Parallel translations
- KJV And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
- BSB With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart,
- NKJV So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
- NASB Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
- NLT They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The believers worshiped together daily in the temple and shared meals in their homes with joy and sincerity. Their new life was marked by glad, wholehearted fellowship.
Overview
The church combined public worship in the temple with intimate gatherings in homes, showing continuity with Israel's worship alongside a new shape of fellowship. 'Breaking bread' likely included shared meals and the Lord's Supper. The gladness and singleness of heart reveal lives changed by grace, anticipating the joy that belongs to all who are united to the risen Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 24
- Acts 5:42Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus, the Christ.
- Acts 2:42They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.
- Ps 86:11Teach me your way, Yahweh. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.
- Acts 20:7On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and continued his speech until midnight.
- 2 Cor 1:12For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.
- Acts 16:34He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God.
- Col 3:22Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
- Rom 12:8or he who exhorts, to his exhorting: he who gives, let him do it with liberality; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
- Acts 1:13–14When they had come in, they went up into the upper room, where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
- 1 Cor 11:20–22When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
- Eccl 9:7Go your way — eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
- Luke 24:53and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
- Neh 8:10Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for today is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.”
- Deut 12:12You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
- Deut 12:7There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.
- Deut 16:11You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
- Luke 24:30When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave to them.
- 2 Cor 11:3But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
- 1 Cor 10:30–31If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced for that for which I give thanks?
- Acts 3:1Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
- Luke 11:41But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.
- Acts 5:21When they heard this, they entered into the temple about daybreak, and taught. But the high priest came, and those who were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
- Matt 6:22“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.
- Eph 6:5Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ;
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
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Original language
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