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 .