Only here in the New Testament does the verb praised (literally “glorified”) have as its object the Lord’s message; the usual object is God. It is relatively easy to speak of “praising a person,” but in many languages one does not “praise a message.” On the other hand, one may always translate the Greek term “glorified” by direct discourse, for example, “they said, The Lord’s message is wonderful.”

Those who had been chosen for eternal life is a phrase which occurs frequently in rabbinic literature. The meaning is clearly that those whom God had chosen became believers, and the translator must not attempt to weaken this meaning.

Chosen for eternal life may thus be rendered as “whom God had selected in order that they would have eternal life.”

In certain languages the phrase became believers is difficult to render succinctly. The same concept, however, may be expressed by phrases such as “arrived at being believers” or “came to believing.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .