Paragraph 21:20–25

21:20a

When they heard this: The Greek is literally “and having heard.” It refers to what Paul reported (21:19). Other ways to translate this clause are:

When they heard that
-or-
After hearing him (Good News Translation)

they glorified God: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as glorified is often translated as “glorify.” It indicates that the believers acknowledged God’s glory, that they honored him and praised him. Other ways to translate this clause are:

they glorified/honored God
-or-
they said how great/wonderful God is

See how you translated the Greek word in 4:21 (“were glorifying”) or 11:18 (“glorified”).

Then they said: The Greek words indicate that after they praised God, they spoke to Paul (21:20b–25d).

21:20b

You see, brother: In some languages it is more natural have the term of address, brother, first. For example:

Brother, you see

You see: Here the Greek word and the English word see means “know” or “understand.” In some languages the word must be translated that way. For example:

You know/understand

brother: The elders call Paul brother because Paul was a fellow believer. Translate this word in a similar way as you did in 21:17. For example:

our brother ⌊in Christ⌋
-or-
fellow believer
-or-
fellow follower ⌊of Jesus⌋

how many thousands: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as thousands means “ten thousands.” It is possible that more than twenty thousand Jews in Judea and elsewhere believed in Jesus at this time. But the word often implies a very large number rather than exactly ten thousand of something.

Here it is more natural in English to use the word thousands. Use whatever number or word you naturally use in your language to describe this kind of number. For example:

how many ten thousands
-or-
how many hundred hundreds
-or-
how many 10,000s/1,000s

21:20c

all of them are zealous for the law: The word zealous means “to be strongly committed to something.” These Jewish Christians were committed to the Law of Moses. They greatly honored it. They obeyed it carefully. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

how devoted they all are to the Law (Good News Translation)
-or-
all of them are deeply committed to Moses’ Teachings (God’s Word)
-or-
all ones who obey/follow the Law with all their hearts

the law: The word law refers to the Jewish laws. It is sometimes called the “law of Moses.” It does not refer to Roman law. Some languages will need to make this clear. For example:

the law ⌊of Moses⌋
-or-
the law ⌊that Moses gave to us⌋
-or-

⌊Jewish⌋ law
-or-
our laws

Some English versions use a capital “L” when referring to the laws of Moses. See the Good News Translation and other examples above.

© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
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.