εἰς μακράν in Acts 2:39 - "far off" in the FUTURE?

[Stephen Nelson]

In Acts 2:39, does “εἰς μακράν” mean “far off ” (far away) in a spatial sense? Or might it mean “far off” (in the future) in a temporal sense? Or is it ambiguous? If it’s ambiguous, might it be intentional (a double-entendre)?

I know that μακράν can mean either “far” (distance) or “long” (time), depending on context. But is the context here clear enough to make a determination?

Acts 2:39

ὑμῖν γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἐπαγγελία καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις ὑμῶν καὶ πᾶσιν τοῖς εἰς μακρὰν, ὅσους ἂν προσκαλέσηται κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν.

ESV: For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

It seems like most translations just have “far off” or “far away” without qualification of some reference to the future - https://biblehub.com/acts/2-39.htm

However, Culy & Parsons’ 2003 textual commentary "Acts: A Handbook on the Greek Text" (p. 31) has this translation:

“For the promise is for you and your children and for all those in the future, as many as the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Despite seemingly going out on a limb with this uncommon translation, their comment on this part of the verse merely says this:

τοῖς εἰς μακρὰν. The article functions as a nominalizer (see 1:3 on τὰ).

If the verse is meant as an allusion to LXX Isaiah 57:19, it would seem to tip the scales in favor of a spatial interpretation:

Isaiah 57:19

εἰρήνην ἐπ᾽ εἰρήνην τοῖς μακρὰν καὶ τοῖς ἐγγὺς οὖσιν. καὶ εἶπεν κύριος, «ἰάσομαι αὐτούς.»
NETS:
peace upon peace to those that are far and to those that are near. And the Lord said, "I will heal them."

We see similar references in Ephesians:

Ephesians 2:13, 17:

(13) νυνὶ δὲ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ὑμεῖς οἵ ποτε ὄντες μακρὰν ἐγενήθητε ἐγγὺς ἐν τῷ αἵματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ
[…]
(17) καὶ ἐλθὼν εὐηγγελίσατο εἰρήνην ὑμῖν τοῖς μακρὰν καὶ εἰρήνην τοῖς ἐγγύς

BDAG seems to be on the fence about it, categorizing it as probably under definition 1.a., but giving definition 2 as an alternative:

1. pert. to being at a relatively great distance from some position, far (away)
a. adv. of place
α. […] εἰς ἔθνη μακρὰν ἐξαποστελῶ σε I will send you far away to the gentiles Ac 22:21. […] The spatial sense, as Ac 22:21, is prob. expressed τοῖς τέκνοις ὑμῶν κ. πᾶσιν τοῖς εἰς μ. to your children and to all who far away Ac 2:39 (cp. REB; NRSV), but s. 2 below.
[…]
2. pert. to a position in time relatively far removed from the present, in time to come τοῖς τέκνοις ὑμῶν κ. πᾶσιν τοῖς εἰς μ. Ac 2:39 (cp. 2 Km 7:19 εἰς μ.=vs. 16 εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα; Sir 24:32 ἐκφανῶ αὐτὰ ἕως εἰς μ.—εἰς μ. also Demosth. 18, 36; Polyaenus 6, 7, 1; Jos., Ant. 6, 278; 20, 153; TestSim 6:2; Just., D. 2, 5; PMeyer 66, 2 [ostracon]), but s. 1 aα above.—DELG s.v. μακρός. M-M. TW.
The spatial sense, as Ac 22:21, is prob. expressed

Here are some of BDAG’s reference examples for definition 2:

2 Samuel 7:19 (εἰς μακράν = vs. 16 εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα)

καὶ κατεσμικρύνθη μικρὸν ἐνώπιόν σου κύριέ μου κύριε καὶ ἐλάλησας ὑπὲρ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ δούλου σου εἰς μακράν, οὗτος δὲ ὁ νόμος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κύριέ μου κύριε
NETS:
And it was very small before you, my Lord, O Lord, and you spoke of your slave’s house at length, but this is the law for the person, my Lord, O Lord!

Sir 24:32

ἔτι παιδείαν ὡς ὄρθρον φωτιῶ, καὶ ἐκφανῶ αὐτὰ ἕως εἰς μακράν
Still I will again make education enlighten like dawn, and I will shine theme forth to far off.

also Demosth. 18 (On the Crown), 36;

τί οὖν συνέβη μετὰ ταῦτ᾽ εὐθύς, οὐκ εἰς μακράν;
What was the result—not the distant, but the immediate result?

Polyaenus, Stratagems 6, 7, 1;

ἀφεθεὶς Ἀπολλόδωρος οὐκ ἐς μακρὰν τὴν τυραννίδα κατέσχε καὶ μάλιστα δὴ τοὺς ἀφέντας δικαστὰς ὠμῶς ἐκόλασε τὴν σωτηρίαν ἀναφέρων εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ στρατηγίαν, οὐκ εἰς τὴν ἐκείνων φιλανθρωπίαν.
Not long afterwards, Apollodorus pursued his schemes with more success, and seized power. The first act of his tyranny was directed against the judges, who had acquitted him. He punished them with the greatest cruelty, as if he owed his life not their humanity, but to his own conduct.

Josephus, Ant. 6, 278;

ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἐπῄνεσεν αὐτοὺς χάριν ἔχειν ὁμολογήσας τὸν ἐχθρὸν αὐτῷ μεμηνυκόσι, καὶ οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν ἀμείψεσθαι τῆς εὐνοίας ὑποσχόμενος αὐτοὺς ἔπεμψε τοὺς ζητήσοντας τὸν Δαυίδην καὶ τὴν ἐρημίαν ἐξερευνήσοντας, αὐτὸς δ᾽ ἀκολουθήσειν ἀπεκρίνατο.
So the king commended them, and confessed that he had reason to thank them, because they had given him information of his enemy; and he promised them, that it should not be long ere he would requite their kindness.

Josephus, Ant. 20, 153;

Νέρων δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν οὕτως παραλαβὼν Βρεττανικὸν μὲν ἀδήλως τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀναιρεῖ διὰ φαρμάκων, φανερῶς δ᾽ οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν τὴν μητέρα τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φονεύει, ταύτην ἀμοιβὴν ἀποτίσας αὐτῇ οὐ μόνον τῆς γενέσεως ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ ταῖς ἐκείνης μηχαναῖς τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἡγεμονίαν παραλαβεῖν.
And when Nero had thus obtained the government, he got Britannicus to be so poisoned, that the multitude should not perceive it; although he publicly put his own mother to death not long afterward, making her this requital, not only for being born of her, but for bringing it so about by her contrivances that he obtained the Roman empire.

Testament of Simeon 6:2;

Ἐὰν δὲ ἀφέλητε ἀφ' ὑμῶν τὸν φθόνον καὶ πᾶσαν σκληροτραχηλίαν, ὡς ῥόδον ἀνθήσει τὰ ὀστᾶ μου ἐν Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ὡς κρίνον ἡ σάρξ μου ἐν Ἰακώβ, καὶ ἔσται ἡ ὀσμή μου ὡς ὀσμὴ Λιβάνου, καὶ πληθυνθήσεται ὡς κέδροι ἅγιοι ἐξ ἐμοῦ ἕως αἰῶνος, καὶ οἱ κλάδοι αὐτῶν ἕως εἰς μακρὰν ἔσονται.
Now, if ye remove from you your envy and all stiff-neckedness, as a rose shall my bones flourish in Israel, and as a lily my flesh in Jacob, and my odour shall be as the odour of Libanus; and as cedars shall holy ones be multiplied from me for ever, and their branches shall stretch afar off.

[Philip Arend]

My vote would be to fit the interpretation to the context of the group that that speaker has in mind, 'everyone the Lord calls to himself". Thus distance in space, time or spiritual condition do not pose a limit the Lord's ability to call. I see no evidence in the verse to limit the distance to any specific category.

[Barry Hofstetter]

Since the prior reference is to their children (τοῖς τέκνοις) I have always read this a reference to those coming after their children, their descendants, which would justify the paraphrase "in the future." But it certainly does not exclude those far off from Jerusalem, the diaspora, which other scriptures make abundantly clear and even here, since he qualifies it with ὅσους ἂν προσκαλέσηται κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν...

[S Walch]

C. K. Barrett says:

εἰς μακράν is not, as is sometimes claimed, a Semitism; see the many parallels given in Wettstein, and in LS 1074. Most of the classical parallels have μακράν in the sense of distant time, and this might suggest that Peter’s meaning is ‘your immediate offspring and more distant generations’; but τέκνα is itself capable of covering more than one generation, and distance in space introduces into the speech a further thought which Luke (see above) was anxious to include. Potentially, from its beginning the church was a universal society and its message was addressed not to Jews only but to distant races. There is no need (with Roloff 63) to restrict the reference to Diaspora Jews. Cf. Isa. 57:19, which is probably distantly in mind: εἰρήνην ἐπʼ εἰρήνην τοῖς μακρὰν καὶ τοῖς ἐγγὺς οὖσιν. Cf. also Ps. Sol. 8:33, ἡμῖν καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις ἡμῶν ἡ εὐδοκία.

Hans Conzelmann says:

καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις ὑμῶν, “and to your children,” should not be taken literally, but looks toward future generations. εἰς μακράν should be taken as referring to distance, “to (all that are) far off” (22:21*; Sir 24:32*; cf. Isa 57:19*). Luke is once again referring back to Joel 3:4* LXX.

I personally go with the double-entendre understanding here - those that are both far away spatially, and those who would be born in the future.

[Jean Putmans]

Montanari gives for μακραν the local meaning (far away, a long way etc.), for the temporal meaning he gives "long, at length" (duration; not: some time in the future). For εισ μακραν he gives "for a long time" (duration). So also Passow, Pape, Bailly, LSJ.

I would say, εισ μακραν here cannot mean "a time in the future", but pοssibly "for a long time" (to me that's doubtful). Don't the "τεκνοισ" mean the future and "μακραν" just the spread in geography, since that is not mentioned before: and Paul wanted to spread the Good News all over the world: the εθνη.

Jean

[Stephen Carlson]

Since the prior reference is to their children (τοῖς τέκνοις) I have always read this a reference to those coming after their children, their descendants, which would justify the paraphrase "in the future." But it certainly does not exclude those far off from Jerusalem, the diaspora, which other scriptures make abundantly clear and even here, since he qualifies it with ὅσους ἂν προσκαλέσηται κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν...

We lost our like or +1 button, so I’ll just reply with a +1 here.

It is probably primarily a spatial term but the space-time metaphor is so conventionalized in language that it would not take much to justify it here.

[Jean Putmans]

Correction in my post: Paul > Luke

Luke addresses Jews as well as Gentiles (see: Nolland; Luke's Readers 1977), so μακραν doesn't necessarily mean the Diaspora-Jews, but all regions of the world.

Jean

[Barry Hofstetter]

Correction in my post: Paul > Luke

Luke addresses Jews as well as Gentiles (see: Nolland; Luke's Readers 1977), so μακραν doesn't necessarily mean the Diaspora-Jews, but all regions of the world.

Jean

Different ways to read the text, none of them mutually exclusive, and all of them encouraging from a devotional point of view. I still think the focus is on the Jewish community, but it's not long until we see the extent to which Gentiles are to be included in the church.