complete verse (Acts 7:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 7:3:

  • Uma: “he said to him: ‘Leave your (sing.) town and your (sing.) relatives. Go to the town that I will point-out to you (sing.).'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “God said to him, ‘Leave that country of yours and your relatives, and go to a country which I will show you as-to which (it is).'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And God said to Abraham, he said, ‘Go away from this your village and from your brothers and your parents, and you live there in that land which I will show you.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “And he said to him, ‘Leave that (near addressee) town/country of yours (sing.) and leave (diff. word) your (sing.) relatives to go to the town/country that in-the-future I will show to you (sing.).'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “He said to him, ‘You are now to leave this land where you are living. Leave your relatives and go to a land which I will point-out to you.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

For the Old Testament quotes, see Genesis 12:1.

Translation commentary on Acts 7:3

The command leave your family and country has reversed the order of the words “country and family,” as they appear in the passage quoted from Genesis; but the Good News Translation has done this inasmuch as the command go to the land that I will show you more naturally follows after “country” than after “family.”

It is sometime difficult to translate the verb show by a term which may be used for revealing or showing objects, since a country does not fall into the same class of demonstrable things. One may be required, therefore, to translate as “the country I tell you to go to” or “the country I say is the right country for you to go to.”

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 .