Paragraph 5:41–42

5:41a

The Greek of this verse begins with two words that mean “certainly therefore” or just “therefore.” For example:

Therefore, truly,
-or-
And so (New Jerusalem Bible)

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing: The Greek is more literally “they were going out, rejoicing, from the presence of the Sanhedrin.” It indicates that the apostles rejoiced while they were going from the room of the Sanhedrin.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

they went out from before the Sanhedrin, rejoicing as they went
-or-
They rejoiced as they went out from the Sanhedrin chamber/room

Sanhedrin: See how you translated this word in 5:21 or 5:34.

5:41b

they had been counted worthy: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:

God had considered them worthy (Good News Translation)

counted worthy: Here this phrase refers to God thinking that the apostles deserved to be honored. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

considered worthy (God’s Word)
-or-
given the honor (New Century Version)

suffering disgrace: This phrase refers to experiencing things that cause disgrace or shame. Being flogged was a disgrace because it was a punishment for criminals and other bad people. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

suffer dishonor (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
be dishonored (LEB)
-or-
be shamed

for the Name: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as for indicates that the apostles suffering disgrace somehow benefits the Name (of Jesus). Here are some other ways to translate this:

for the sake of the Name
-or-
to the benefit of the Name

the Name: This phrase refers to Jesus and all that he is. But Luke did not add “of Jesus,” probably because he wanted this phrase to imply that, of all people ever, this is the most important Name.

If people in your language will not know who this phrase refers to, you may want to:

• Add a footnote to explain. Here is an example footnote:

This refers to Jesus. His name is the most important.

• Explain who it refers to in your translation. For example:

the name of Jesus (New Living Translation (2004))

© 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.