Paragraph 20:36–38

20:36

he knelt down: The common posture for prayer at the time was to stand. Kneeling in prayer indicated the person is very sad, grieving, or feeling helpless or oppressed. Here Paul expected that he would not see these friends of his again (20:38a–b).

Kneeling in biblical cultures also showed that a person was reverent and humble before God. In some languages kneeling to pray has a different meaning. If that is true in your language, you may want to:

• Explain it in your translation. For example:

he knelt ⌊reverently/humbly⌋

• Use the gesture in your culture that indicates that the person reveres God. You may then want to indicate the literal word in a footnote. An example footnote is:

Literally “knelt.” At that time, kneeling showed that the person was humble.

• Translate literally and explain it in a footnote. An example footnote is:

At that time, kneeling showed that the person was humble.

The same Greek word occurs in 9:40. See how you translated it there.

with all of them: The phrase all of them refers to the elders from the church at Ephesus. The elders probably knelt with Paul. They may have also prayed for Paul.

prayed: The word prayed refers to speaking to God, either to praise Him, thank Him, or ask Him something. This term does not refer to ritualistic words or words of magic. Use the proper word or phrase in your language. See how you translated this word in 1:24 or 16:25.

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