12When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “Fellow Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Following is a hand colored stencil print on momigami of Peter by Sadao Watanabe (1970):
Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe. For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive form (excluding the listeners of the sermon) or the dual (Peter and John).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Some languages also differentiate between a general inclusive (everyone belonging to a group, present or not) and a specific inclusive (everyone belonging to a group that is present during the discourse). Isthmus-Mecayapan Nahuatl is one of those languages uses a specific form (“nehamen”) for this verse.
Source: Howard Law in Notes on Translation with Drills, p. 160ff.
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 3:12:
Uma: “When Petrus saw those many people, he said to them: ‘My Israel relatives! Why are you surprised seeing what has happened here? What do you keep looking at us (excl.) for? Do you think/say that the reason this person is walking is because we (excl.) have power, or from the holiness of our (excl.) hearts? Indeed not!” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When Petros saw the people, he spoke to them. He said, ‘O people of Isra’il. Why do you wonder about us (excl.)? And why do you stare at us (excl.)? Do you think-mistakenly it is our (excl.) power that has caused this man to walk, or that’s the reason he is able to walk, because our (excl.) livers are holy/clean? It’s not.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when Peter saw this, he said to the people, ‘My companions, descendants of Israel, why are you so surprised? Why are you looking at us? Perhaps you suppose that it was through our own power or because of the fact that we don’t have any sin that we cured this person so that he could walk.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When Pedro saw them, he said, ‘My companions who are Israel’s descendants, why are you amazed at that? Why are you staring-at-us? Is-it-indeed-the-case (incredulous RQ) that our power or goodness was what-made-this man-walk?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When Pedro observed, he said to them, ‘My fellow-countrymen descendants of Israel, why are you amazed at what has happened to this person? And why are you staring like that at us (excl.), as if he had been made able to walk through the strength of our (excl.) own knowledge/aquired-skill or (our) obeying of the will of God?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Chichimeca-Jonaz: “When Peter saw many gathering together, he addressed the people, he told them: ‘You Israelites who are relatives of mine, why are you thinking it over inside because of what you saw happen and why are you looking so hard at us as if it were that we alone by our strength had caused that this person went to walking? Maybe you all think he got well because we are so holy.'” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Greek there is no expressed object of the verb saw; many translations, as the Good News Translation, prefer to understand the people as the object of the verb, though it is possible to understand the object as being the total experience of the people rushing toward Peter (see Barclay, Phillips “when Peter saw this”).
The expression men of Israel is a means of identifying Peter with those to whom he speaks and would include both men and women. In some languages this is simply equivalent to “fellow tribesmen” or even “my relatives” (if this involves the extended ethnic unit). (See also 2.14.)
The term Israel may be used in most languages as a rough equivalent to the identification of the tribal or national unit. Sometimes this is specifically indicated in terms of descent, for example, “my kinsmen descended from Israel.” In other instances it implies an ethnic unit, such as “people of my tribe called Israel.”
A translation of surprised can be precisely the same as has occurred in the previous verses (vv. 10 and 11).
An expression for stare at us may be “look at us so strong” or even “see us and see nothing else.”
Do you think that it was by means of our own power or godliness that we made this man walk? is much more natural in English than would be a literal translation of the Greek, “Do you think that our own power or godliness has made this man walk?”
The expression by means of our own power or godliness is more often than not expressed as a cause since both power and godliness must frequently be introduced by verbal expressions, for example, “because we are so strong personally and because we worship God so well” or “because we have special power or because we are so good before God.”
In a number of languages there is an expression for “spiritual power.” This is the type of power that the medicine man has in working miracles or in the control of natural phenomena. It is often a useful equivalent at this point.
The term godliness refers to one’s own personal piety and religiosity, and therefore an expression which speaks of a person’s “goodness before God” or “manner of worshiping well” may be an adequate functional equivalent.
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 .
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