word / command (of God) (Japanese honorifics)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kotoba (みことば) or “word (of God)” in the referenced verses.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Acts 18:5

For the possible relationship of the movements of Timothy and Silas in Acts and in Paul’s writings (1 Thessalonians 2.17–3.5), see various commentaries. It must be remembered that both Luke and Paul have included in their records only what was of concern and importance to them; neither has tried to give an exhaustive account of all that took place. This is the last time that Silas is mentioned in Acts. The introductory clause when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia is a very important transitional device, since it marks the time when Paul gave up working with Aquila and Priscilla and devoted himself full time to preaching the message.

Gave his whole time to translates a verb which literally means “to hold together” (see 7.57; 28.8); here it is used in the sense of “give (one’s) whole time to” or “to be completely occupied with.” Gave his whole time to may also be rendered as “did nothing else but” or “worked only at.”

In a number of languages one cannot speak of preaching the message. There must be some kind of goal or content of the message—for example, “the message about Jesus.”

In this context the verb testifying may be equivalent to “showing clearly” or “explaining carefully.”

When in Greek two nouns occur together as subject and as predicate complement, it is normal for the subject to occur with the article and for the predicate to be without the article. Therefore, Jesus is the Messiah may be translated as “the Messiah is Jesus,” since the definite article appears with Messiah. As some commentators have suggested, the Christian missionaries had to begin their preaching in the Jewish synagogues with the known, the Messiah, and go from there to the unknown, Jesus, which would account for this construction in Greek. As in so many languages, the subject expression normally marks given information, while the predicate identifies new information. It is on this basis that one may argue that this final clause may be rendered as “the Messiah, whom they know about, was indeed Jesus,” since Jesus would have been the unknown element as far as Paul’s hearers were concerned. However, this type of order would seem quite strange to the average reader of the New Testament who would be much more familiar with the person of Jesus than he would with the designation of Jesus as the Messiah. Therefore, to the reader, it is the Messiahship of Jesus which is presumably the new information, while Jesus, as a historical person, is well accepted as given information. It is for this reason that so many translations (for example, Phillips, Luther, La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée, An American Translation*, Zürcher Bibel), employ the arrangement “Jesus was the Messiah.” Others retain the Greek structure “the Messiah is Jesus” (Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, Moffatt).

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 18:5

Paragraph 18:5–6

18:5a–b

And when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself fully to the word: There are two ways to interpret the Greek words here:

(1) Silas and Timothy arrived, then Paul devoted himself to preaching full-time. For example:

After Silas and Timothy had arrived from Macedonia, Paul devoted all his time to preaching (New Jerusalem Bible)

(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition, New Living Translation (2004), God’s Word, Contemporary English Version, NET Bible, Revised English Bible, New Century Version)

(2) Silas and Timothy arrived and found Paul already devoted to preaching full-time. For example:

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with preaching (Revised Standard Version)

(Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, King James Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1).

18:5a

Macedonia: Macedonia was a Roman province of Greek speaking people.

Luke has mentioned Macedonia several times in chapter sixteen, so you may not need to explain that it is a province here, as in the Berean Standard Bible. But chapter seventeen does not mention Macedonia, so you may want to explain again that it is a province. For example:

⌊the province of⌋ Macedonia

18:5b

Paul devoted himself fully to the word:
Here this clause indicates that Paul began at this time to preach the message about Jesus full-time. He stopped working as a tentmaker. Other ways to translate this clause are:

Paul gave his whole time to preaching the message (Good News Translation)
-or-
Paul devoted all his time to preaching (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
After this, Paul spent all his time telling people the Good News, (New Century Version)

18:5c

testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ: This phrase in Greek is literally “testifying to the Jews the Christ to be Jesus.” The Jews in Corinth knew the prophecies about the coming Christ, but may not have heard about Jesus. So Paul explained to them that the prophecies about the Christ were fulfilled in Jesus. For example:

testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus (Revised Standard Version)

The meaning of “the Christ was Jesus” is the same as “Jesus was the Christ.” But “the Christ was Jesus” starts with what the Jews knew something about: the Christ. The New International Version and many English versions follow the order usually found in the New Testament: “Jesus…Christ.”

testifying: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as testifying means here “proclaim earnestly.” Paul had an important message for both Jews and Greeks. Other ways to translate this are:

telling the truth about
-or-
bearing witness
-or-
made it clear

the Christ: The word Christ means “the anointed one.” The Jews used it to refer to the special person God promised to send to save them from their enemies. The Hebrew word with the same meaning is written “Messiah” in English. Here Paul was trying to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Christ/Messiah. See how you translated this word in 2:31 or 17:3.

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