with a loud voice

The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “with a loud voice” in English is translated in Low German idiomatically as luuthals or “loud-throated” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006).

It is also used in Acts 19:28 for krazó (κράζω).

complete verse (Acts 19:28)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 19:28:

  • Uma: “When they heard the words of Demitrius, they were angry, and they kept on cheering/shouting: ‘Praise Artemis, the anitu of us Efesus people!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When those men who were gathered heard what Demetiri said, they were very angry. They kept calling out loudly, they said, ‘Greatly honored is Artemis, the god of the people of Epesus.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then when the many people gathered there heard this, they became very angry with Paul and company, and they shouted out, ‘Great is Artemisa the one we Ephesians worship’.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Upon their hearing that-aforementioned which Demetrius said, they became-extremely -angry, and they all-shouted-as-a-group saying, ‘Honored is Artemis who is our god here in Efeso!'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When they heard, their anger wanted to explode now. They were then shouting out, saying, ‘Praiseworthy is Diana whom we taga Efeso worship!'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 19:28

The indefinite pronoun subject of the verb heard has been made definite, the crowd. Heard these words may be rendered in some languages as “heard what Demetrius had said.”

The term translated furious combines in this context components of anger as well as excitement. In some languages this is actually translated “became excited and very angry.”

The form of the shout raised by the Ephesians was the usual way of cheering: Great is Artemis of Ephesus! The grammatical form of this shout by the Ephesians is in some languages rendered as “Artemis of Ephesus is very great indeed.” In other instances there are idiomatic expressions equivalent to great which may literally mean “long live” or “high above all else” but which are in reality only idiomatic ways of shouting praise to an important personage or a god.

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 .