2:41a
The Greek text of 2:41a begins with a conjunction that means “therefore” or “then.” It indicates that they responded to what Peter had said. For example:
So (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
Then (King James Version)
The Berean Standard Bible and some other versions does not translate the conjunction here.
Those who embraced his message were baptized: The clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:
⌊the apostles⌋ baptized those who accepted his message
-or-
Those who accepted his message underwent baptism
Those who embraced his message: This phrase indicates that some of the crowd agreed with what Peter said. It implies that they believed in Jesus as the Christ, the one who could save them. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
those who received his word (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
those who welcomed his message (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
Many of them believed his message (Good News Translation)
2:41b
about three thousand were added to the believers: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:
⌊God⌋ added about three thousand people to the number of believers
-or-
about three thousand people joined those who believed ⌊in Jesus⌋
about three thousand: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as three thousand is literally “three thousand souls” (as in the Revised Standard Version). It refers to the number of people who started believing in Jesus that day. For example:
about three thousand people (Good News Translation)
three thousand: Some languages do not have large number words like thousand. If that is true in your language, you may want to:
• Use numerals. For example:
3,000
• Use smaller number words in combination to equal three thousand. For example:
thirty hundreds
• Use the word or phrase from the major language.
were added: This phrase indicates that those new believers became part of the group of Jesus’ followers.
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