There are certain serious complications in a more or less literal rendering of the first part of verse 8, since it could mean that Paul went into the synagogue and stayed there for a period of three months speaking boldly with the people. This is, of course, not what is intended. In a number of languages it is far better to place the temporal expression “for a period of three months” at the beginning of verse 8 so as to provide a kind of temporal setting for Paul’s activity—for example, “for a period of three months Paul regularly went to the synagogue and spoke boldly with the people.” This would mean that Paul’s activity was regularly repeated during this period of three months, not that he was continually in the synagogue arguing with the people this entire period of time.

The verb went has no explicit subject connected with it in Greek, though it is obvious that Paul is intended, and for this reason a number of translators have made the subject explicit (Phillips, Moffatt, Barclay).

Spoke boldly is the same verb which occurs in 9.27; with the people has been supplied with the verb spoke boldly. Similarly, with them has been introduced with arguing. Most translations take “arguing” with the same force as the Good News Translation has done, though some weaken the verb to mean “hold discussions” (see An American Translation*). Others understand this verb to mean “to preach,” and the Zürcher Bibel has rendered the whole clause as “he spoke of the Kingdom of God and tried to convince the people concerning it.”

Although trying is not explicitly expressed in the Greek, many translations understand this to be implicit in the meaning of the Greek tense (Zürcher Bibel, An American Translation*). Some few have combined these two verbs so that the second qualifies the first: “argued persuasively about the Kingdom of God.”

The final expression convince them about the Kingdom of God may be difficult to render literally into some languages. One may, however, employ an expression such as “to persuade them that what he was saying about the Kingdom of God was true.” In many languages one can convince people that something is true, but it is difficult to simply “convince people about something.”

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 .