The Greek in Acts 19:32 that is translated as “in confusion” or similar in English is translated in Low German idiomatically with the reduplicative ut Rand un Band, meaning out of control (lit. “outside of edge and ring,” referring to the edge and ring of a wine barrel) (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006).
church
The Greek that is often translated as “church” in English is translated into Avaric as imanl’urazul ahlu: “the community of believers” or “the believing people.”
Magomed-Kamil Gimbatov and Yakov Testelets (in The Bible Translator 1996, p. 434ff. ) talk about the genesis of this term (click or tap here to read more):
“The word ‘Church’ presents particular difficulties, as we might expect when we think that even many Christians do not understand it correctly. When people today say ‘church,’ they often mean a particular building, or an organization consisting chiefly of clergy (priests and monks). It is even harder to find a word or combination of words which adequately translates the meaning for people unfamiliar with Christianity. Surprisingly, the Greek word ekklesia, indicating in the classical language ‘an assembly of the people,’ ‘a gathering of citizens,’ has come into Avar and other Dagestani languages in the form kilisa. This, like the word qanch (‘cross’), is an ancient borrowing, presumably from the time before the arrival of Islam, when Dagestan came under the influence of neighboring Christian states. In modern usage, however, this word indicates a place of Christian worship. Thus it is completely inappropriate as a translation of its New Testament ancestor ekklesia.
“We were obliged to look at various words which are closer to the meaning of the Greek. Some of these words are dandel’i (‘meeting’), danderussin (‘assembly’), the Arabic-derived mazhlis (‘meeting, conference’), zhama’at (‘society, community’), ahlu (‘race, people, family, group of people united by a common goal or interest’, as in the Arabic phrase ahlu-l-kitab ‘people of the Book’ or ‘people of the Scriptures’), which describes both Jews and Christians, and ummat (‘people, tribe’). In Islamic theology the phrase ‘Mohammed’s ummat’ means the universal community of Muslims, the Muslim world, in the same way as the Christian world is known as ‘Isa’s ummat.’ None of these descriptions on their own, without explanation, can be used to translate the word ‘Church’ in the New Testament. Thus, after long consideration, we adopted the phrase imanl’urazul ahlu, meaning ‘the community of believers,’ ‘the believing people,’ This translation corresponds closely to New Testament teaching about the Church.
“It is interesting that the same word ahlu with the meaning ‘tribe, community’ has been used by translators for different reasons in the introduction to the Gospel of Luke in order to translate the expression in the original Greek pepleroforemenon en hemin pragmaton (πεπληροφορημένων ἐν ἡμῖν πραγμάτων), which the Russian Synodal translation renders ‘about the events well-known amongst us’ (Luke 1:1). The expression ‘amongst us’ cannot be translated literally into Avar, but has to be rendered ‘among our people’; and here the same term was used as for the word ‘church’, literally ‘among our tribe, community (ahlu).'”
In Kamo “church” is fang-balla (“owners of writing-people”) when referring to the church community and “house of writing-people” when referring to a church building. David Frank explains: “In Kamo culture, Christianity was associated with writing, so Christianity is called balla, which they say means ‘people who write.’ Christianity is balla, and Christians are called fang-balla, which means ‘owners of Christianity.’ That is the term that is used for the church, in the sense of people, rather than a building. In Philemon 1:1b-2a, Paul says he is writing ‘To our friend and fellow worker Philemon, and to the church (fang-balla ‘owners of Christianity) that meet in your house.’ The word fang “owner’ is very productive in the Kamo language. A disciple is an ‘owner of learning,’ an apostle is an ‘owner of sending,’ a believer is an ‘owner of truth,’ a hypocrite is an ‘owner of seeing eyes.’ The expression ‘house of writing-people’ is used in Matthew 16:18, which reads in Kamo, ‘And so I tell you Peter, you are a rock, and on top of this rock foundation I will build my house of writing-people, and never even death will not be able to overcome it.” (See also Peter – rock)
In Bacama there also is a differentiation between the building (vɨnə hiutə: “house of prayer”) and the community (ji-kottə: “followers”) (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
In 16th-century Classical Nahuatl, a transliteration from Spanish (Santa Yglesia or Santa Iglesia) is typically used rather than a translation, making the concept take on a personified meaning. Ottman (p. 169) explains: “The church building, or more precisely the church complex with its associated patio, has a Nahuatl name in common usage — generally teopan, something like ‘god-place,’ in contradistinction to teocalli, ‘god-house,’ applied to a prehispanic temple — but the abstract sense is always Santa Iglesia, a Spanish proper name like ‘Dios’ or ‘Santa María’, and like ‘Santa María’ often called ‘our mother.’ As a personified ‘mother,’ in the European tradition as well as in Nahuatl, She instructs Her children or chastises them; as Bride of Christ, She both longs for Her heavenly rest and bears witness to it, in the ‘always-already’ of eschatological time; as successor to the Synagogue, the blindfolded, broken-sceptred elder sister who accompanies Her in painting and sculpture, She represents the triumphant rule of truth. ‘The Church’ can mean the clerical hierarchy; it can also, or simultaneously, mean the assembly of the faithful. It dispenses grace to its members, living and dead, yet it is also enriched by them, living and dead, existing not only on earth but in purgatory and in heaven.”
In Lisu the building (“church”) is called “house of prayer” (source: Arrington 2020, p. 196) whereas in Highland Totonac the community is referred as “those who gather together” (source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. ), in Huehuetla Tepehua as “those who gather together who have confidence in Christ” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), in Uma as “Christian people” (source: Uma Back Translation), in Kankanaey as “the congregation of God’s people” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation), and in Tagbanwa as “you whom God separated-out as his people because of your being-united/tied-together with Jesus Christ” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
In American Sign Language, “church” (as in the community of believers) is made up of the combination of the signs for “Jesus-into-heart” (signifying a believer), followed by the sign for “group.” (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Church” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
While British Sign Language also uses a sign that focuses on a group of people believing in Jesus (see here ), another sign that it uses combines the signs for “ringing the (church) bells” and a “group of people.” (Source: Anna Smith)
“Church” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Ekklesia .
complete verse (Acts 19:32)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 19:32:
- Uma: “At that time, no kidding the boisterousness of those gathered. There were some that said this, some that said that. Most of them did not know why they were meeting.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “At that time, it was very noisy in that meeting place. Some kept calling out like this, others also were calling out like that. Because the majority, they did not even know why they were gathered there.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for the people there in the gathering house, their rioting was really drawn tight. They shouted out one after another and each one shouted something different. Very few people there actually knew what had happened to cause them to gather together there.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “Meanwhile the many-people, they excessively made-a-racket-all-at-once, what they shouted being mutually-different and mutually-contradictory, because the majority of them, they didn’t know the origin and reason of their being-gathered.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “Well, as for those people there at that meeting-place, their noise couldn’t be known/decifered, for they were shouting out differing things. As for the majority of them, they didn’t know the root-cause, but were only going along with others in shouting.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Teutila Cuicatec: “Meanwhile, the townspeople were buzzing [idiom for complete confusion in assembly when many are talking and shouting at the same time] in there. Some were shouting one thing and others were shouting another because almost all of them didn’t even know why they had gathered together.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Translation commentary on Acts 19:32
Meanwhile translates a particle frequently used by Luke (see 1.6). In the present context it is used merely to indicate a temporal relationship between what has preceded and what will now follow.
The word translated meeting is in reality the term which is generally used for the official gathering of the public assembly of Ephesus. The question is whether it has this meaning in the present context or not. In light of all that had transpired and of what would happen, one must assume that this was merely an impromptu gathering rather than an official gathering of the people to conduct city business.
It is difficult to say in some languages that a meeting was in an uproar, but one can usually say “the people attending the meeting were making a great deal of noise” or “… were shouting very much.”
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 .
SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 19:32
Paragraph 19:32–34
19:32a
Meanwhile: This verse starts with a Greek phrase that indicates that the story continues. Here it indicates that Luke began to write about the crowd again. For example:
At that time,
-or-
Well, as for those people there at that meeting-place,
The New International Version and some English versions allow the context to imply that the story continues and do not translate the Greek phrase.
the assembly was in turmoil. Some were shouting one thing and some another: The Greek words are literally “Some were shouting one thing, some another because the assembly was in confusion.” The assembly being confused was a reason for people shouting various things. For example:
some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion (New Revised Standard Version)
But there were other reasons for people shouting various things. So some English versions indicate the connection more generally. The New International Version does so with the colon (:).
the assembly was in turmoil: In some languages the translation must refer to the people of the assembly being in turmoil. For example:
The people who had gathered were in turmoil
Some were shouting one thing and some another: The words were shouting and thing are implied in the second clause. They are not repeated in the Greek or the Berean Standard Bible. This is an acceptable way of writing in Greek and English. In some languages some or all of the words must be repeated. For example:
Some were shouting one thing, some ⌊were shouting⌋ another ⌊thing⌋
-or-
some people were shouting one thing, others were shouting something else (Good News Translation)
19:32b
and: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as and introduces 19:32b. It introduces a second reason why people were shouting various things.
most of them did not even know why they were there: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as they were there is literally “they had assembled.” For example:
they had gathered together (New Jerusalem Bible)
© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
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.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.