SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 18:19

18:19a–b

Paul parted ways with Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue there and reasoned with the Jews: The Greek words are literally “and he left them there and/but he himself, going into the synagogue, reasoned with the Jews.” This probably indicates that Paul left Priscilla and Aquila at the harbor while he went to the synagogue. It is not clear why they did not go in with him. Other ways to translate these words are:

He left them(dual) there ⌊at the harbor⌋ but he went alone to the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

18:19a

When they reached Ephesus:
Ephesus was a very large and prosperous city.

Paul parted ways with Priscilla and Aquila: This clause tells the reader more about Ephesus. In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate that there are other cities named Ephesus and Paul parted ways with Priscilla and Aquila only in this one. If that is true in your language, translate this information in a way that tells more about Ephesus. One way to do that is to start a new sentence here. For example:

Paul left Priscilla and Aquila there.

Also see the note above on 18:19a–b.

18:19b

He himself went into the synagogue there: The pronoun is emphasized in the Greek. It probably indicates that he went into the synagogue alone. The Berean Standard Bible emphasizes the pronoun using himself.

reasoned with the Jews: The word reasoned indicates that Paul discussed the meaning of the Scriptures with the Jews. Other ways to translate this clause are:

held discussions with the Jews (Good News Translation)
-or-
debated with the Jews

See how you translated the word reasoned in 18:4.

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Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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