complete verse (Acts 9:24)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 9:24:

  • Uma: “This plan of theirs, [was] to guard all the doors of the village wall both day and night, so that when/if Saulus passed by, they would kill him. However Saulus actually knew of that intention of theirs.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But Saul was told about that plan of theirs. Day and night the Yahudi watched the gates by which to go out from that town so that they could kill Saul.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But there was someone who warned Saul of this, and day and night the Jews watched the entrances there in the defense wall around the town, because they wanted to kill Saul if they saw him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Every-day and every-night they secretly-watched the entrance of their town in order to kill him if/when he went-out. But Saulo found-out-about their plan.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “What they did was, night and day they were lying-in-wait for him at the gate in the wall of that city, for if/when he went outside, they would kill him. But he happened-to-hear-about what they intended to do to him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 9:24

In order to bring out the intended focus of the Greek sentence order (“but was made known to Saul their plan”), he was told of has been placed first, followed by what they planned to do. An American Translation* has accomplished this goal by “Saul found out about the plot.”

The equivalent of watched the city gates in many languages “waited for him at the city gates.” The men obviously were not simply watching the gates, but “waiting for him at the city gates.”

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 .