In many receptor languages a typical way of introducing a person such as Demetrius would be to say “there was a silversmith named Demetrius.” A term for silversmith is simply “one who makes objects out of silver,” “a maker of silver things,” or “a worker with silver.”

Artemis (some translators identify her with the Roman goddess Diana: Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Phillips) was a goddess of fertility. Her temple, four times larger than the Parthenon in Athens, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The rendering “silver shrines of Artemis” (so most translations) is misleading, for it suggests that Demetrius made silver figurines of the goddess Artemis herself. What the Greek actually says is that “he made silver temples of Artemis,” that is, miniature temples. For this reason the Good News Translation is much closer to the meaning of the Greek: Demetrius made silver models of the temple of the goddess Artemis. It should also be noted that the Good News Translation has added the qualifier of the goddess in order to indicate to the reader exactly who Artemis was. Archeologists have found a number of silver figurines of the goddess Artemis, and they have found a number of clay models of her temple, though no silver models of her temple have been found.

A translation of silver models of the temple may be “very small temples made of silver which look just like the large temple.”

Though the Good News Translation introduces a classifier such as goddess to identify who Artemis was, it may very well be useful to have at this point a marginal note saying that Artemis was the Greek goddess of fertility. This may help to explain to the reader something of the emotional uproar which Demetrius was able to cause in the crowd which assembled. The Good News Translation expression a great deal is literally “no little” in Greek (see Revised Standard Version), but both the New English Bible and the Good News Translation have rendered this expression by a great deal of.

The last clause in verse 24 may be rendered as “his business caused the workers to receive much money” or “the workers made much money because of this business.”

Profit (Moffatt, An American Translation*) may be the meaning of the Greek word as used by Paul, though some scholars take the word in its original meaning of “business.”

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 .