enraged / anger / fly into rage

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “enraged,” “anger,” “fly into rage” or similar in English is translated in the Catholic Mandarin Chinese Sigao version with a historical Chinese idiom: dàfā léitíng (大發雷霆 / 大发雷霆) or “fly into a rage.” (Source: Toshikazu S. Foley in Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies, 2011, p. 45ff.)0

complete verse (Acts 5:33)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 5:33:

  • Uma: “When the leaders heard their words, their hearts became irritated, and they wanted to kill them.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When the councilors heard this, they were very angry that’s why they wanted the commissioned ones to be killed.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when the leaders heard this, they were very angry, and they decided that they would kill the apostles.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When they heard that, their anger was extreme and they wanted to kill the apostles.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, when those leaders heard, their anger really became very severe. They wanted to kill those apostles.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 5:33

Members of the Council and the apostles have been substituted in place of the pronouns “they” … “them” in order to make the pronominal referents explicit (see, for example, Jerusalem Bible “this so infuriated them that they wanted to put them to death”). They were so furious translates a verb which appears only here and in 7.54 in the New Testament; it literally means “to saw through,” and is used in both passages in Acts in a figurative sense.

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 5:33

Paragraph 5:33–40

5:33a

When the Council members heard this: The word this refers to Peter’s reply in 5:29–32. In some languages “that” would indicate the correct meaning. For example:

When they heard that
-or-
When they heard those words

the Council members: This phrase refers to the Jewish leaders. In some languages that may be unclear. For example:

the leaders (New Century Version)

they were enraged: The word enraged means that they were very angry.

5:33b

they resolved:
The Greek tense indicates that it was not only at that moment that they decided to do this. They had wanted to do this from the time Peter spoke 5:29–32 until the time Gamaliel convinced them to not kill the apostles (5:40). For example:

were wanting (LEB)
-or-
began wanting

to put the apostles to death: The Greek word is more literally “remove them.” Here it is a figure of speech that means “kill as a punishment for a crime.” The apostles had not done anything worthy of a sentence of death, but the leaders were so angry that they wanted to kill them in this way. Here are some other ways to translate this:

execute (God’s Word)
-or-
kill (Revised Standard Version)

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