This went on for two years must be rendered in a number of languages as “Paul did this for a period of two years.” A continuous series of events cannot be expressed in some languages by a pronoun such as this, nor can one speak of such events as “going on.” For these reasons one must restructure the form of this clause.

In 20.31 Paul says that he spent three years in Ephesus: he argued for three months in the synagogues (19.8), taught for two years in the lecture hall (19.9), and spend more time in the province of Asia (19.22, where Asia is perhaps equivalent to Ephesus). It was probably during this time that the churches at Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea were founded, though not directly by Paul in all cases, since Luke states that during this period all the people who lived in the provinces of Asia, both Jews and Gentiles, heard the word of the Lord.

In a number of receptor languages, a clear distinction is made between “heard the word of the Lord” and “heard the message concerning the Lord.” The first would mean that the individuals had directly heard what the Lord had said, or had heard persons quoting the words from the Lord. Luke’s intention, however, in this last phrase of verse 10, is to indicate that in some way or other people throughout Asia had heard about this message concerning the Lord.

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 .