SIL Translator’s Notes on Romans 16:4

16:4a

who have risked their lives for me: Here this clause further describes Prisca and Aquila. It does not separate this Prisca and Aquila from other couples with the same names. For the correct meaning in some languages, translators must avoid the word who. For example:

and they risked their lives for my life
-or-
They risked their lives for my life

have risked their lives for me: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as risked their lives is literally “risked their necks.” The phrase is a figure of speech that refers to putting oneself in danger of being killed. We do not know what situation this refers to. But Prisca and Aquila put themselves at risk of losing their own lives in order to save Paul from someone or something trying to kill him. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

risked their own necks to save my life (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
risked their lives for me (New International Version)
-or-
they risked dying to rescue me from dying

16:4b

Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them: The word them refers to Prisca and Aquila. It may be more natural in some languages for the translator to avoid the word them here. For example:

Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to Prisca and Aquila.

The phrases Not only I and but all the churches of the Gentiles indicate that Paul gave thanks and these churches gave thanks as well. They also emphasize that Paul was not the only person to give thanks. Here are other ways to translate these words:

I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
I thank them. And that’s not all, all groups of believers who are not Jews thank them also.

the churches: See how you translated the word “church” in 16:1.

Gentiles: The word Gentiles refers to non-Jewish people. See how you translated this word in 1:13 or 15:27.

are grateful: This refers to saying words of appreciation to someone. For example:

say thanks
-or-
thank

© 2020 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.

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