complete verse (Acts 25:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 25:18:

  • Uma: “All the accusers were in front of me as well, saying their accusations. I thought that there was probably some behavior of his that was very evil that he was accused of. But-in-fact what he was accused of was not evil behavior.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “His accusers stood up to accuse him. I thought-mistakenly that their accusations against him concerned bad deeds that he had done, but it-wasn’t so.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then those who accused him came before me also. I had supposed that their accusations would be some very bad sin, however it wasn’t.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “and then his enemies spoke. I thought it was something serious that they would accuse-him -of, but it certainly wasn’t.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well when assembled, those Jews stood up to come out with what they held against him. I thought-mistakenly that they would come out with some serious/heavy evil which he had done, whereas no.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 25:18

That I thought they would must be taken to indicate that Festus thought Paul’s opponents would have charges of serious crimes to bring against him. Some translators render this phrase rather ambiguously, so that it suggests that the men did not bring serious crimes against Paul, and Festus knew all along that they would not (see Revised Standard Version “they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed”).

In some languages it may be useful to shift somewhat the order of clauses in this verse—for example, “his opponents stood up to accuse him, and I thought they would accuse him of evil crimes, but they did not accuse him of any such evil crimes.” This type of restructuring may be necessary in some languages, because the qualifying relative clause, that I thought they would, introduces something which is different from what is a normal characterization of evil crimes.

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 25:18

25:18a–b

they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected: This clause indicates that the Jewish leaders accused Paul of crimes, but they were not the crimes that Festus expected them to accuse him of. Other ways to translate this clause are:

they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
they did not charge him with any of the evil deeds I had suspected (NET Bible)
-or-
the accusations made against him weren’t any of the crimes I expected (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
they accused him of ⌊many things but⌋ nothing that I expected

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