SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 16:10

16:10a–b

As soon as Paul had seen the vision, we got ready to leave: They may have waited until morning to get ready. But they may have packed their things and left immediately to find a ship, because ships often left very early in the morning. For example:

As soon as Paul had this vision, we got ready (Good News Translation)

16:10b

we: This pronoun probably indicates that Luke now joined Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

If this change from “they” (16:8) to we is confusing to readers in your language, explain it in a footnote. An example footnote is:

At this time Luke joined Paul, Silas, and Timothy. So Luke, as the author of Acts, started writing “we.”

16:10c

concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them: This clause indicates the reason for leaving at once. For example:

because we decided that God had called us to preach the Good News to the people there (Good News Translation)

God had called us to preach the gospel: The verb called indicates that God told them to preach the gospel in Macedonia. Other ways to translate this clause are:

God had summoned us to preach the gospel
-or-
God had instructed us to preach the gospel
-or-
God wanted us to preach the gospel

gospel: This refers to the message about Jesus Christ. See how you translated this word in 8:40 or 15:7.

General Comment on 16:10b–c

16:10c indicates the reason for Paul and his companions to leave at once (16:10b). In some languages it is necessary or more natural to have the reason first. For example:

10cwe concluded that God had called us to preach the gospel to them, so 10bwe got ready at once to leave for Macedonia

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Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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