5:14a–b
more and more believers were brought to the Lord—large numbers of both men and women: There are two issues here.
Issue 1: Interpretation
There are two ways to interpret what the phrase to the Lord connects to:
(1) It connects to believers. For example:
More and more believers in the Lord were added to their number, crowds of both men and women (NET Bible)
(New International Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, God’s Word, Contemporary English Version, NET Bible, Revised English Bible, New Century Version, New American Bible, Revised Edition)
(2) It connects to brought. For example:
And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women (Revised Standard Version)
(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, King James Version, English Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004))
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because in the Greek the word “believing” is closest to the phrase to the Lord.
Issue 2: Meaning
The Greek is more literally “more (ones) believing in the Lord were being added, multitudes of both men and women.” It indicates three things:
(a) more and more people were believing in the Lord,
(b) they were both men and women,
(c) it was many men and many women.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
more and more men and more and more women believed in the Lord. There were very many of them and they were being added ⌊to the believers⌋
-or-
large numbers of both men and women were beginning to believe in the Lord and ⌊God⌋ added them ⌊to the group of believers⌋
5:14a
Yet: The Greek word here is often translated “and” or sometimes “but.” More and more people believing in Jesus possibly contrasts to no one daring to associate with the believers (5:13b). For example:
But (Good News Translation)
But this verse does not contrast with the Jews speaking well of the believers (5:13a). For example:
And (New American Standard Bible)
Some languages would not translate the Greek word for a natural connection here. For example:
More men… (God’s Word)
were brought to the Lord—large numbers of both men and women: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. The Greek tense also indicates an ongoing action. For example:
⌊God⌋ was adding to their number
-or-
⌊they⌋ were joining them
The phrase indicates that the amount of believers was increasing. It does not refer to calculating a total.
Lord: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Lord means “master,” or “one who has authority over others.” See how you translated this word in 1:6 or 5:9.
Here the word Lord refers to Jesus. In some languages it is more natural to name who this Lord is. For example:
Lord ⌊Jesus⌋
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