For the exegetical problem related to the translation of in all things, see 20.34. This expression may be idiomatically rendered in a number of languages as “I have shown you in every way” or “I have shown you how under all kinds of circumstances.”

By working hard in this way may be rendered as “by working hard as I have worked” or “by doing hard work as I have done.”

Weak should be taken as a reference to the sick.

Paul quotes a saying from the Lord Jesus, and though this appears nowhere else in the New Testament, there is no reason to doubt its authenticity. Not everything that our Lord said and did was recorded in the Gospels (see John 20.30-31). For the translation there is more happiness in giving than in receiving, see also the Jerusalem Bible. Happiness is a very difficult term to translate; it refers to the kind of joy one experiences when God rules in one’s life and when one’s values are based upon the values of the Kingdom of God rather than on the values of this world.

Again, the verb remembering must be understood in terms of “bearing constantly in mind” or “reminding oneself constantly.” This is not the remembering after a time of forgetting.

The rendering of there is more happiness in giving than in receiving may require considerable readjustment, since in so many languages it is only people who can be happy, give, and receive. Therefore one may translate as “when a person gives he is happier than when he receives” or “if a person gives to someone else, this makes him happier than if he just receives from someone.”

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 .