The Greek sentence order has been rearranged in the Good News Translation to put the parenthetical explanation (this is his name in Greek) immediately following the name Elymas. This is his name in Greek translates “for this is the way his name is translated.” However, it is not known what Elymas means in Greek. There is no connection between it and Bar-Jesus, neither is there any evident play on words. For these reasons it is best to do something similar to what the Good News Translation has done (see also Jerusalem Bible “as he was called in Greek”). In order to make perfectly explicit the relationship of Elymas to Bar-Jesus one can say “when speaking Greek one used the name Elymas in talking about Bar-Jesus.”

The passive construction can, of course, be easily shifted to active “the magician Elymas opposed Barnabas and Saul.”

Most commentators and translators understand the faith to be used here as a summary description of the Christian message, similar to 6.7, but some understand this to refer to the governor’s faith, that is, “he tried to keep the governor from believing.” It is relatively simple to translate the faith if this refers to the governor’s own faith, “he tried to keep the governor from believing in Jesus.” However, if the faith is to be understood as the content of what was believed by Christians in general, the problems are somewhat more complex. One can say “he tried to keep the governor from believing the way the Christians believed” or “he tried to keep the governor from trusting the word of God as the believers in Jesus had come to trust it.” In this way one may define the faith as the manner or content of believing.

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 .