SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 19:5

19:5

On hearing this: The word this refers back to 19:4b. In some languages the word “that” is more natural.

they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus: The phrase into the name of indicates that they were baptized as a sign that they followed Jesus. They now belonged to the group of believers. They had now completed the process of becoming Christians. Other ways to translate this clause are:

they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
they were baptized ⌊again⌋ to make known that Jesus was their Lord
-or-
they were baptized as followers of the Lord Jesus
-or-
they were baptized to show that they now believed in the Lord Jesus
-or-
they were baptized so that it might be known that they were in fellowship with our Lord Jesus

they were baptized: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. Perhaps Paul baptized them. But since Paul is mentioned by name in 19:6a, perhaps someone else baptized them. For example:

Paul⌋ baptized them
-or-

someone⌋ baptized them

baptized: Here this word refers to the Christian ritual that uses water. See how you translated this word in 1:5 or 18:8.

General Comment on 19:5

The context implies that the men believed that Jesus was the Christ and so asked to be baptized. In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate or imply that they did not believe in Jesus, but were baptized anyway. If that is true in your language, include the implied information in your translation. For example:

On hearing this, they ⌊believed and⌋ were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
-or-
On hearing this, they ⌊believed in⌋ the Lord Jesus ⌊and⌋ were baptized into his name.

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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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