SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 19:28

Paragraph 19:28–31

19:28a

When the men heard this, they were enraged: The Greek words are literally “having heard and having become full of anger.” It tells of two things that happened before the men began shouting: They heard what Demetrius said and became very angry. Other ways to translate this are:

When they heard this and were filled with rage (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
When they heard this they were very angry.

the men: This refers to the men whom Demetrius had called together.

19:28b

and began shouting: The Greek words indicate that the men shouted “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians” many times.

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians: The Berean Standard Bible follows the Greek word order. In some languages this word order is not natural. Translate using a natural word order. For example:

Artemis of the Ephesians is great! (God’s Word)

The men shouting this were from Ephesus. They used the name of their city to be clear that only they had the temple of Artemis in their city. They were proud that the temple was in their city. Probably most Ephesians worshiped her as one of their most important gods.

In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate or imply that the men were not from Ephesus. If that is true in your language, translate the correct meaning. For example:

Great is Artemis of ⌊us,⌋ the Ephesians
-or-
Great is Artemis, whom ⌊we,⌋ the Ephesians, ⌊worship
-or-
Great is Artemis of Ephesus

Great: Here this word refers to being famous, important, or powerful. It does not refer to being large. The Ephesian men stated that Artemis was an important god.

Artemis of the Ephesians: The word of indicates a relationship between Artemis and the people of Ephesus. The temple was in Ephesus. It was the main temple where Artemis was worshiped. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

Artemis, the goddess of Ephesus, (New Century Version)
-or-
Artemis ⌊here⌋ in Ephesus

But the men were not explaining who Artemis was. Everyone in Ephesus knew who Artemis was. Your translation should not imply that the men were explaining who Artemis was.

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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.
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