complete verse (Acts 12:22)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 12:22:

  • Uma: “The crowd cheered/shouted praising Herodes, they said: ‘These are no-longer the words of mankind. It is like the words of a powerful person from the sky!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The people were shouting, they said, ‘That one speaking is no longer a human-being but a god already.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The people were very happy. They shouted, saying, ‘It’s not just a person who is talking, but rather he is already a god.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When his speech/address was done, they said shouting, ‘Those were the words of a god, not just the words of a person.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When he finished speaking, the crowd of people were excited-and-noisy. They said, ‘This is evidently a god who is speaking, not a man/human!'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 12:22

It isn’t a man speaking, but a god may cause certain difficulties in some languages, for it is not possible to deny Herod being a man. Therefore one must say “he speaks like a god; he doesn’t speak like a man” or “he is a god speaking, not just a man speaking.”

They shouted in the Greek is a tense that suggests continuous action, “they shouted and kept on shouting.”

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 .