married status

In Purari society everyone marries, so the question was raised why in Acts 21:9 Philip’s daughters were unmarried. The final rendering into Purari tended to imply that they were all under 18, in order to avoid the implication that they were all so undesirable that nobody wanted to marry them.

wonder

The Greek that is often translated as “wonder” into English is different from the term that is translated as “miracle” (see miracle) since it “usually involves some unusual phenomena in nature which are a portent of dire woe or extraordinary blessing.” In Huichol these are “awe-inspiring things,” in Yucateco they are “things which show what is coming,” and in Eastern Highland Otomi the expression must be cast into the form of a verb phrase “they will amaze the people.”

complete verse (Acts 21:9)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 21:9:

  • Uma: “He had four children, all unmarried-girls, and all prophets–meaning, ones who had ability to utter God’s Word.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “He had four unmarried daughters who spread/made-known words of God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He had four unmarried daughters who were inspired by God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “They also had four children who were young-ladies who were prophets.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “As for that Felipe, he had four unmarried daughters. They were acknowledged as prophets for they were always being inspired by the Espiritu Santo with what God was causing to be told to the people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 21:9

A number of commentators and translators understand Luke’s phrase “virgins daughters” to mean simply unmarried daughters (see Moffatt, An American Translation*, New English Bible, Phillips, Revised Standard Version).

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 21:9

21:9

four unmarried daughters: This phrase implies that these daughters were adults but not yet married. Use a word or phrase for daughters that refers to grown women.

who prophesied: Someone who prophesied received messages from God. The message may be in words or visions. It may reveal something about a past, present, or future event, or it may reveal someone’s thoughts, motives, or attitudes. It is not like a sermon, prepared by the preacher’s study of the Bible, but God may inspire a preacher with a prophecy during a sermon. Sometimes, the theme of a prophecy is that people must stop sinning and obey God. The person speaks the prophecy to the people or writes it down for their use.

Here the Greek word indicates that they frequently prophesied. God gave them messages in the past and would in the future. It does not indicate that they prophesied about Paul when he arrived. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

who were prophets/prophetesses
-or-
who had the gift of prophecy (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
who were inspired by God
-or-
to whom God gave his messages/prophecies
-or-
They were frequently being inspired by the Holy Spirit with what God wanted them to tell to the people

© 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.