24:19a
who ought to appear before you: This clause in Greek is literally “who it was necessary to be present before you.” These Jews from Asia started the disturbance in the temple courts. They should have been at this trial to explain Tertullus’ charges if they could. Paul knew they could not truthfully support the charges, but were in fact the cause of the disturbance. Other ways to translate this clause are:
these are the ones who should have appeared before you (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
It is necessary for them to stand/be before you here
bring charges: This phrase refers to accusing Paul in court before Felix. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
make their accusations (Good News Translation)
-or-
accuse (God’s Word)
24:19b
if they have anything against me: The Greek clause indicates that it is possible but not likely that the Jews from Asia have anything against Paul. He probably implies that even if they did accuse him before Felix, they could not prove what they say. Other ways to translate this clause are:
if they have anything provable against me
-or-
if they can prove anything against me ⌊which I doubt⌋
-or-
if there is indeed some wrong of mine that they can prove
© 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.
