The Greek sentence of 3.2 is usually best divided into two parts: the first identifies the place and the man, and the second tells about his activity of begging from the people who came to the temple.

No positive identification can be made of the Beautiful Gate referred to. Generally it is understood to have been one of the gates on the eastern side of the temple (near the Shushan Gate or the Nicanor Gate); but Jewish tradition knows nothing of a gate called the Beautiful Gate, and any attempt to be specific in identification is hazardous.

A translation of the term gate turns out to be, in many languages, a term for “door.” A word for gate is associated far more with an opening in a fence or some other type of enclosure rather than as a more or less elaborate solid structure which could close off such an important area as the temple. A term for “door” should, however, refer to “a doorway” rather than to the object which closes the opening.

In the Good News Translation the transition between the first and second sentences, that is, between verse 1 and verse 2a, consists of a reference to the place there. In some languages it is necessary to be more specific, “the beautiful doorway of the temple.”

Sometimes the expression the “Beautiful Gate” as it was called must be restructured in a somewhat more explicit fashion, for example, “the doorway that was called the Beautiful Doorway,” “the doorway that people commonly called the Beautiful Doorway,” or “the doorway, it had a name, the Beautiful Doorway.”

After the transitional elements which add further information as to the location, the lame man is introduced and described in terms of the length of time that he had been lame. In some languages lameness is expressed as “he could not walk.” In other languages some more specific reference to his feet may be included, for example, “his feet were weak,” “his legs could not hold him up,” or even “his legs were twisted.”

Lame all his life translates “lame from his mother’s womb,” another Semitic idiom. An expression such as all his life may be shifted into a verbal form such as “for as long as he had lived.” On the other hand, it may include a specific reference to his birth, for example, “he was even lame in his mother’s stomach” or “even when he was born he was lame.”

The Good News Translation has given initial position to every day, which in the Greek comes after the verb. This is one of the most satisfactory transitions in English for a narrative discourse, and highlights the use of the Greek imperfect tense which indicates habitual action.

He was carried to translates two verbal phrases: “he was being carried” and “whom they were placing.” The second of these verbs is an impersonal third person plural with an object. In Semitic speech this kind of construction is often the equivalent of a passive verb with the object of the impersonal verb being equivalent to the subject of the passive verb. That is, “whom they were placing” is the equivalent of “he was being placed.” Rather than combine these two verbs, as the Good News Translation has done, one may prefer to render them separately, for example, “they carried him there and put him down.” The main argument for translating these verbs separately is so that the reader can clearly see that at the very moment the disciples were standing there the lame man was being carried past them.

If the passive expression he was carried to this gate can be employed, it is desirable to retain it since in this way one does not introduce additional participants. If an active form is required then one must usually say something like “some people carried him each day to this gate.” However, it is important to distinguish between the people who carried him to the gate and the people from whom he begged money.

An expression such as beg for money from the people represents such a common experience that one can usually translate it without special difficulty. In some languages, however, an expression for begging can only be given in direct discourse, for example, “he said to the people, Please give me money.”

In view of the particular setting of this discourse the use of the expression going into the temple is most appropriate, although it is not designed to exclude his begging from people as they came out of the temple. The real meaning here is simply “those who went in and out of the temple” or “those who visited the temple.”

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 .