And so God chose and sent his Servant to you first literally translates “to you first of all God having raised up his Servant sent him.” “Having raised up” is ambiguous; it may refer either to the resurrection of Jesus or to the sending of Jesus to earth. In verse 22 the same verb is used (there translated sent) of the sending of a prophet into the world; and inasmuch as this verse takes up the thought of verse 22 and uses the same word as is found in the quotation there, it seems most likely that the reference is to God’s sending Jesus into the world rather than to his raising him from the dead. The Good News Translation employs the verb chose, indicating it has something to do with the expression of God’s purpose in sending his Servant.

In some languages it is difficult to employ single goals such as his Servant as the object of the verbs “choose and send.” The action of “choosing” implies one person from among a number, and the “sending” can have only a single goal. Therefore in some languages it may be preferable to have “and so God chose Jesus as this Servant and sent him.”

In a number of languages it is necessary to indicate clearly the meaning of first. Does it mean, for example, that the people were the first ones to whom he sent his Servant, or was this the first thing which God did, namely, to send his Servant? It is the first meaning which should be clearly indicated here, for the emphasis in Acts is upon the message going first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.

In this particular context “blessing” is described as making all of you turn away from your wicked ways. This is therefore more than some mere verbal formula and can be translated in a number of languages as “caused good to you” or “caused you to be richly benefited.” The final clause then specifies how this took place.

By making all of you turn away involves a causative expression which may be indicated clearly in some languages as “God caused good to you; he did this by causing you to turn away from your wicked ways.”

The metaphorical usage of turn away from your wicked ways is paralleled in a number of languages, for example, “to turn from your wicked road,” “to turn from the wicked road on which you are walking,” or “to turn from the road on which you are walking so wickedly.” In the same way that “righteousness” may be expressed as “to walk on God’s road,” so evil may often be described as “to walk on a wicked road,” or simply “to do wicked deeds” or “to act evilly.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .