To go their own way means that God permitted them “to go as they pleased,” without a specific revelation of his will for them in Jesus Christ. Paul’s point here, as in 17.30, is that men had been ignorant of the truth about the living God in times past, and God had overlooked their idolatry because of this ignorance, but now that now that the truth had been proclaimed they were obliged to turn from their idols to the living God.

The idiom to go their own way is useful in English but may be quite misleading in another language, since it may be refer only to actual movement from one place to another. A more equivalent expression in some languages is “to do as they themselves thought best,” “to determine themselves what was right,” or “to worship as they thought it was best to worship.”

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 .

Some men of our group is a deliberately vague phrase (cf. v. 1). Upset you is literally “upsetting your souls,” with “souls” used as equivalent to “persons.” The word rendered upset is a very strong term, and it refers to reversing what has been done or to tearing down what has been built.

The final clause they had not, however, received any instructions from us to do this may be equivalent to “we did not, however, tell them that they should do this.”

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 .

The phrase the place of prayer is the same as the one referred to in verse 13. In the earlier verse one can render this as “a place where Jewish people habitually gathered together to pray to God.” In verse 16 a similar expression can be employed “a place where people habitually gathered to pray to God.” It may be necessary to specify habitual action and also the goal of prayer, namely, God. Otherwise the reader might assume that this was only a place where someone on some particular occasion happened to be praying.

We were met by a slave girl may, of course, be rendered in the active form as “a slave girl met us.” However, “met” must not be understood in the technical sense of becoming acquainted with, but simply “coming across” or “chance meeting up with.”

A slave girl may be rendered in some languages as “a girl who had been sold into slavery” or “a girl who had been bought as a slave.”

Who had an evil spirit in her that made her predict the future is literally “who had a python-spirit.” “Python” was originally the name given to the snake that guarded the sacred place at Delphi where divine oracles were given. Later, the word “python” was used of anyone who possessed the power to foretell the future. Looked at from the Christian point of view, this “python-spirit” would have been an evil spirit, and therefore the Good News Translation has rendered the phrase an evil spirit (in her) that made her predict the future. Predict the future may be rendered as “tell people what would happen in the future” or “tell people what was going to happen.”

Some persons have assumed that the owners were a man and his wife, but the incidents which took place later would seem to indicate that several men were involved as the owners of this slave girl.

Much money may also be taken in the sense of “much profit.” Telling fortunes (see New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible) better qualifies what she was doing than “foretelling the future” (Phillips). The word translated by telling fortunes appears only here in the New Testament, but when used in the Septuagint it never refers to true prophecy but is always used of lying prophets and of forbidden ways of seeking God’s will. In practically all languages there are expressions for telling fortunes—this is simply the practice of divination. But if there is no generally recognized term or expression for this practice, one can always translate “telling people what would happen to them in the future.”

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 .

The expression threw … in an uproar may be equivalent to “caused a terrible disturbance among” or “caused complete confusion for.” In this instance the crowd is not primarily the mob that had been formed previously, but the crowd that had gathered as a result of the violence done to Jason and the other brothers in their being dragged before the city authorities.

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 .

The verb protested is rendered in some languages as “answered back strongly,” “said in response,” or “declared with strong words.”

By shaking the dust from his clothes is literally in Greek “shaking his clothes.” Although the same verb is used here as appears in 13.51, no “dust” is specifically mentioned in this Greek text, and here “clothes” are specified, not “feet.” However, it is natural to relate these two expressions and to assume that the words of Paul which immediately follow reflect the correct interpretation of this gesture. Also, the meaning of the idiom “shaking his clothes” is indicated by the verb protested. Therefore, there should be little difficulty for the reader in understanding the meaning of this action. It is always possible to introduce at this point a marginal note to explain such a gesture and to refer to other parallel expressions in the Scriptures. Some translators may prefer to employ a receptor language idiom at this point—for example, “waved his arms” or “turned his back,” while in some cases indicating the idiom of the Greek text in the margin.

If you are lost, you yourselves must take the blame for it translates the Jewish formula “your blood (be) on your own head” (see 2 Samuel 1.16; Matthew 27.25). This expression means that the person upon whose head the blood comes must assume responsibility for the decision and/or action. Although most translators render this literally, it would seem best to express the meaning of the passage rather than to reproduce a verbal correspondence, since it is doubtful whether many people would understand the true significance of the phrase unless they had been conditioned by a good background in biblical terminology. In fact, the literal rendering of this Semitic idiom is often quite meaningless; and if people do try to assign meaning to it they frequently misunderstand its implications. It should certainly never be translated literally without some kind of marginal note. At the same time, the expression if you are lost may likewise be somewhat misleading, unless one understands a good deal of biblical teaching about being lost. In some translations this expression can be rendered as “if you are lost from God,” “if you cut yourselves off from God,” “if you cause yourselves to perish,” or “if you cause yourselves to be condemned by God.” All of these expressions relate in one way or another to a person’s final condemnation and separation from God.

I will go to the Gentiles should not mean merely that Paul was leaving his present residence and going to live in the house of a Gentile. It may be necessary, therefore, to render this final sentence of verse 6 as “From now on I will go and preach to the Gentiles” or “From now on I will leave you and go preach to the Gentiles.”

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 .

The three months period was probably the winter season. Paul tried to avoid sea travel during wintertime (see 27.12; 28.11; Titus 3.12). It was customary for many Jews to travel back to Jerusalem each year to celebrate the Passover, and for this purpose there were many pilgrim ships which carried them from the cities of this region to Jerusalem. It was probably Paul’s intention to go by one of these ships, but since it would have been easy for the Jews aboard ship to stir up others against Paul and to have had him killed, he decided it would be better to travel by land.

In some languages the relationship between the two clauses involving preparations to go to Syria and the discovery that the Jews were plotting against him must be somewhat altered in their temporal relationships—for example, “while he was getting ready to go to Syria, he discovered that the Jews…” or “he was getting ready to go to Syria, but then he discovered that the Jews….”

In this type of context discovered may be rendered in some languages as “heard” or “learned from some people.” In most receptor languages one cannot translate this term discovered by the same word which may be used to describe the finding of some unusual object.

Plotting against him may simply be translated as “planning to kill him.”

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 .

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 .