Though the Greek text has gar (literally “because” but often signifying only a general connection in thought), there is no direct causal relationship between verse 22 and the preceding statement. The fact that the man was over forty years of age simply enhances the significance of the miracle. Accordingly, in many languages one cannot translate by a causal conjunction meaning “for.”

The expression the man on whom this miracle of healing had been performed presents a number of difficulties for transfer into other languages. Accordingly, one sometimes finds “the man who was healed in this miraculous way,” “the man who experienced healing by a miracle,” or “the man whom a miracle made well.”

The phrase over forty years old is variously expressed in different languages, for example, “he had lived more than forty years” or “his years were more than forty.” In languages in which there is a poorly developed numerical system (as, for example, in the languages of the primitive tribes in South America), one can express relative age in terms of the time of life, for example, “he was no longer the age of a warrior” or even “he was so old that his children would be men.” (This does not, of course, imply that the man had had children, but simply that if he had children, they would already be adults.)

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 .