What answer did God give him? (Revised Standard Version, An American Translation* “but what is God’s reply”; New English Bible “but what does the divine voice say”) is an unusual expression, but its meaning is clear: it refers to a message (in this case specifically an answer) that God has given. This question cannot be preserved in a number of languages, since the answer immediately follows as a direct quotation and without an introductory statement. A change of the question to a statement may, therefore, serve a double purpose, not only in eliminating what may be an awkward rhetorical expression, but also in introducing the immediately following direct discourse—for example, “and this is the answer God gave him:….”

Most translations render the last part of this verse literally (see, for example, Revised Standard Version “men who have not bowed the knee to Baal”). The Good News Translation does two things to help the reader understand the expression: (1) the phrase “bowed the knee” is shown to mean worshiped, and (2) Baal is qualified as a false god. It is often necessary to add classifiers before certain proper nouns, especially in translating the Old Testament, because in the original cultural context these words were easily understood, whereas in the cultural situation into which they are being translated the meaning may not be clear.

In some languages it is difficult to speak of a false god or a “false prophet.” The latter may be identified by a phrase such as “a person who pretends to be a prophet of God but who is not.” One cannot speak of the false god Baal as “Baal who pretends to be a god but is not,” but one can say “Baal, whom people thought was a god, but who was not” or “Baal whom people called a god but who was not a god.” One may also employ in some instances a phrase such as “worshiped the idol Baal.” In the context of the Bible the term “idol” identifies a false god.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .