SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 25:8

25:8a–c

Paul spoke with respect to Festus. Translate in a way that indicates respect.

Then Paul made his defense: “I have committed no offense against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.”: The quote here is only a summary of the main topics. It is probably a summary of all that Paul said to defend himself. Other ways to translate these clauses are:

Paul, in his defense, said, “I have committed no offense in any way against the Jewish Law, or against the temple, or against Caesar.”
-or-
Paul made his defense ⌊and in summary said⌋, “I have done nothing wrong against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.”

The Greek probably indicates that Paul defended himself while the Jews accused him (25:7). It probably indicates that both the Jews and Paul spoke a number of times while in front of Festus. For example:

while Paul made his defense saying that he had done nothing wrong against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar

It does not indicate that they spoke at the same time and Festus had to listen to two people talking at the same time. Perhaps to avoid that, some English versions are ambiguous as to when Paul spoke. For example:

Paul’s defence was this, ‘I have committed no offence whatever against either Jewish law, or the Temple, or Caesar.’ (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.” (English Standard Version)

25:8a

Paul made his defense: The phrase made…defense refers to responding to accusations and explaining that the person had not done as accused. See how you translated a similar clause in 24:10 (“make my defense”).

25:8b

I have committed no offense: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as committed no offense is often translated “have not sinned.” Here it refers to not breaking any laws of the Jews, doing anything to dishonor the temple, or doing anything against Caesar. Other ways to translate this clause are:

I have done nothing wrong (New International Version)
-or-
I am not guilty of any crime (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-

I haven’t broken any Jewish law or done anything against the temple or the emperor (God’s Word)

25:8c

against the temple: This phrase indicates that Paul did not harm the temple or say something bad about it. For example:

done anything against the temple (God’s Word)

against Caesar: This phrase indicates that Paul did not harm Caesar or say something bad about him. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

harm Caesar
-or-
slander Caesar

Caesar: This word was the family name of the first five Roman emperors. The last, Nero, was ruling at this time. He was the leader of the Romans and all the people groups that the Romans had conquered. See how you spelled this word in 17:7.

If people in your area are not familiar with this name, you may want to explain it in a footnote. An example footnote is:

Caesar was leader of the Roman empire.

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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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