complete verse (Acts 4:4)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 4:4:

  • Uma: “But the people who heard the words of Petrus and Yohanes earlier in the House of God, many of them believed in Yesus, with the result that the amount of the followers of Yesus just kept-increasing, until they were five thousand.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But many who had heard what Petros and company spoke, believed and trusted in Isa. Just the men, their number was more or less five thousand.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “In spite of that, many who had listened to Peter and company believed. Therefore the number of men alone who were believers in Jesus came to be five thousand.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But many of those who were listening believed nevertheless. The number of the men was about five thousand if those who believed at the first were counted-in.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But many of those who had heard believed the teaching of Pedro-and-companion. Therefore counting only the men, the number of believers had now reached five thousand.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “But many who listened to their preaching believed in our Lord Jesus, and they along with those who believed in our Lord since former days numbered about 5000 counting only the men.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

Translation commentary on Acts 4:4

The contrast between the response of the priests and Sadducees, and the reaction of the people in the crowd, is such that a contrastive conjunction such as but is important.

It may be essential to elaborate somewhat on many, since this may need to be linked directly to the crowd, for example, “many of the people in the crowd.”

Message is literally “word,” but it is used here in the specialized sense of the Christian message, a meaning which it has in a number of places throughout Acts. However, in this context one may need to translate as “what Peter and John had preached.”

Many languages require some goal to the term believed. The closest goal is the message, for example, “they believed it.” On the other hand, it is also possible to employ a frequently recurring formula “they believed in Jesus.”

The number of men came to about five thousand indicates that the total number of believers was now five thousand (see 2.41), not that an additional five thousand persons were added to the group, for example, “all the believers totaled five thousand” or “the number of believers became five thousand.” It is impossible to say whether the term men includes women as well.

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 4:4

4:4a

many who heard the message believed: This clause indicates that of all the people who heard Peter and John tell about Jesus (3:12–26), many of them believed. Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

many of those who had listened to their message became believers (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
But the people who heard the words of Peter and John earlier, many of them believed in Jesus

the message: This refers to what Peter and John told the people about Jesus (4:2). In some languages some of the information would be helpful for the readers. For example:

the message ⌊about Jesus⌋

believed: Here the word “believe” means to accept that something is true. The people believed that the message about Jesus was true. See how you translated a similar word in 3:16 (“faith”).

4:4b

and the number of men grew to about five thousand: Below are two possible interpretations of the word men:

(1) Many scholars think that this word refers to the men only who had become believers in Jesus. That is, it does not include the women and children who also had believed in him. For example:

so the number of men who believed grew to about 5,000 (God’s Word)

(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, God’s Word, English Standard Version, King James Version, New American Standard Bible, NET Bible, New Living Translation (2004), Revised English Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition)

(2) Some scholars think that the word may have been used here in a generic way, referring to all the people who had believed in Jesus. For example:

and the number grew to about five thousand (Good News Translation)

(Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because that is the usual meaning of the word.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause according to interpretation (1):

so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Therefore counting only the men, the number of believers had now reached five thousand.

grew: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as grew is literally “became.” It implies that the number of believers had increased from more than 3,000 on the day of Pentecost (2:41) to over 5,000 at this time. Here are some other ways to translate this word:

came to (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
increased/rose to

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