The Greek text here translated In this short time do you think you will make me a Christian? has been rendered in a number of ways by other translators, as can be easily seen by consulting various translations. The sentence itself may be understood either as a statement of fact, indicating Agrippa’s interpretation of Paul’s intention, “you are trying to make me a Christian,” or as a sarcastic statement on the part of Agrippa, “so you think you can make a Christian of me!” The Good News Translation interprets this as a sarcastic statement and expresses it by means of a question.

In this short time may be understood as in the Good News Translation, though there are several other possibilities: (1) “with such little effort”; (2) “with a few words”; (3) with the sense of “to sum it all up,” that is, “briefly what you intend….” The same possibilities exist for the interpretation of the phrase in verse 29, a short time. Another question that is raised is whether or not Luke used this phrase in the same sense in both occurrences, and for that reason the translation is the same in each instance. No firm conclusion can be reached, but the Good News Translation has the advantage of suiting the context quite well. Agrippa realizes that in the short time Paul has to speak to him, he is trying to make him a Christian. To this Paul replies, Whether a short time or a long time … my prayer to God is that you and all the rest of you who are listening to me today might become what I am (that is, a Christian).

My prayer to God is may be rendered as “I pray to God that….”

The final expression except, of course, for these chains may be rendered as “of course, I do not pray that you should be in chains,” “of course, I do not want you to be chained,” or “but of course, I do not want you to be a prisoner.”

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 .