complete verse (Acts 28:29)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 28:29:

  • Uma: “[[After Paulus spoke like that, the Yahudi people went-home from there and argued among themselves.]]” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “After Paul said this, the Yahudi left and they argued greatly.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And after Paul said this, the Jews went out and very intense was their arguing.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “[Upon his saying that, the Jews left, extreme being their arguing-together.]” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When Pablo had ended that which he said, those Jews then left to go home. Their arguing as they went was far-from-ordinary.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 28:29

This verse is omitted from many modern translations because its place in the text is quite doubtful, and for this reason the Good News Translation has placed the verse in brackets. Note that the contents of this verse simply duplicate what is said in verse 25. Because of the difficulty of historical and linguistic order, some early scribe may have thought it was necessary to try to resolve the problem by the addition of verse 29.

The Good News Translation has made the subject Paul explicit, whereas the Greek has simply “he.”

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 28:29

28:29

There is a textual issue here. 28:29 was added in some of the later Greek manuscripts. The person who put verse numbers in the Bible did so based on these later Greek manuscripts. Only the King James Version includes this verse in their translation, while the New American Standard Bible includes it in brackets. Many English versions include the words of 28:29 only in a footnote. You should include this verse only as a footnote, as many English versions do. An example footnote is:

Only some of the later Greek manuscripts include 28:29, which reads: When he had said this, the Jews went away, disputing sharply among themselves.

If the common language version in your area includes this verse in their translation, you may want to include it in brackets, or some other symbol to indicate that this verse was not in the original book.

If you put 28:29 in a footnote, here are several ways to number the verses:

• Put the number 29 after the number 28 in 28:28. Put the footnote marker (symbolized here by “*”) after 28:28. For example:

28–29…and they will listen!” *

30Paul stayed there two full years…

• After the last word of 28:28, put in the number 29. Put the footnote marker after it. For example:

28…and they will listen!” 29

30Paul stayed there two full years…

• Do not include the number 29. Put the footnote marker after 28:28. For example:

28…and they will listen!” *

30Paul stayed there two full years…

When he had said this, the Jews went away, disputing sharply among themselves: The Jewish leaders in Rome left Paul after he finished speaking (28:28). They were arguing strongly with each other as they left and probably continued arguing as they went back to their homes. Other ways to translate these clauses are:

After Paul said this, the Jews left, arguing violently among themselves. (Good News Translation)
-or-
And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, greatly disagreeing with each other. (New Living Translation (2004))

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Sung version of Acts 28

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