The discourse structure, both syntactic and semantic, of this quotation (vv. 17-21) is essentially poetic. This is not too obvious in verses 17 and 18, but in verses 19 and 20 the poetic nature of the lines, that is, the typical parallelism and the figurative symbolism, is evident. In such passages the rendering in the receptor language should have a similar amount of nonprose structure.

Miracles … and marvels represents a set phrase in Greek (it occurs here and also in 2.43; 4.30; 5.12; 6.8; 7.36; 14.3; 15.12). Although the word translated miracles taken by itself would most naturally refer to a happening that evokes awe, and the word translated marvel (literally “sign”) is often used to point to a truth beyond itself, in a set phrase such as this it is not possible to establish any significant difference between the two words. If a receptor language has two terms for such miraculous happenings, one is likely to refer to portents—special signs in the heavens which foretell important events, or which symbolize significant changes or happenings. This is the term which would most closely parallel the first of the two Greek terms. Frequently, however, such terms occur most naturally in causative expressions, for example, “I will cause portents to occur in the sky” or “I will cause people to see portents in the sky.” Where only one term exists in a receptor language, a person may employ a single statement, such as “I will cause portents to exist in the sky and on the earth.”

The precise meaning of the phrase thick smoke (literally “vapor of smoke”) is difficult to define, though the translation represented by the Good News Translation (see also An American Translation*) seems most probable. The equivalent of “thick smoke” is in many languages “a cloud of dark smoke,” “heavy smoke,” or “big smoke.” The closest normal equivalent is what comes from a volcano—both smoke and vapor.

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 .