complete verse (Acts 4:28)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 4:28:

  • Uma: “This planning of theirs, was to kill Yesus. But in fact what they did fulfilled what you (sing.) had already decided [made certain] from-the-first! As a result everything happened according to your (sing.) power and your (sing.) own desire, Lord.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “They do this because formerly yet you planned from/by your will and your power that this should happen.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they have agreed on what they will do to him according to what you foreordained that they would do.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “And they did all that you (sing.) previously because of your (sing.) power had already-decided should be fulfilled.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But well, all which they have decided to do is all in harmony with what you indeed determined would happen.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • San Mateo del Mar Huave: “Thus they did because you have stated from before that thus it would be.”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “They carried out all that you decreed would have to come to pass.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “Because this is what you ordained in the beginning that would happen.”
  • Chuj: “But they just did like you had said long ago how that those things must be done.” (Source of this and three above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

Translation commentary on Acts 4:28

Your power translates “your hand”; “the hand of God” is a biblical phrase which signifies “the power or might of God,” especially as seen in his mighty acts of salvation.

The statement of the principal event “gathering together” and its purpose to do everything that … had already decided is not difficult to combine in most languages. What complicates the picture is the addition of the phrase by your power and will. This explanation of the means, or as some might interpret it the attendant circumstances, may need to be expressed as a separate clause.

The first clause can be rendered as “they came together to do exactly what already had been decided would happen.” The parenthetical expression can then be rendered as “you could decide it this way because of your power and will.” An even fuller statement of this might be “you could decide exactly what would happen because you had the strength and because this is the way you wanted it.” It is difficult to know in all instances whether Greek boulē should be rendered “wanted it,” as a close translation of “will,” or whether the concept is closer to “design” or “plan,” in which case one could translate “because you had planned it this way.”

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 .