The Good News Translation transitional particle so is an important element in connecting verse 8 with verse 7. Since this introduces the result of Paul and his group not having been able to go where they had expected to go, it is useful to indicate the resulting alternative, namely, going on through Mysia.

For the average reader, a number of these details of geographical relationships are obviously obscure and therefore need to be supplemented by maps. It is for that reason that the Bible Societies urge that in any publication of a book such as The Acts the Apostles there be an accompanying map which will show the relationships of these various areas. Of course, for some people who are just emerging from a nonliterate state (that is, in translations for peoples who have not previously had a written language), maps present obvious difficulties, since people need to learn how to “read maps.” Nevertheless, people do learn readily, and it is important that publications for such persons, as well as for any public, have adequate maps. Otherwise the text is unduly obscure and may be misleading.

The verb which the Good News Translation has translated traveled right on through has as its primary meaning “passed by” (see alternative rendering in Good News Translation). However, the problem is that it would have been impossible for them to have gone from the border of Mysia straight to Troas without passing through Mysia, since they had been forbidden to go to Bithynia. Moreover, there are places where this verb definitely means “to travel through,” and most scholars understand it to mean such in the present passage. Went down is the normal expression that one would use to describe a trip from the interior down to the coastal region. Troas was a port city of Mysia on the Aegean Sea, near the spot where the city of Troy had once been.

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 .