[B-Greek] Acts 16:25 praying and singing?

Craig Johnson newsgroupstuff at gmail.com
Sun May 14 17:28:35 EDT 2006


In Acts 16:25, it says:

PAULOS KAI SILAS PROSEUCOMENOI hUMNOUN TON QEON

I would have thought that with the combination of participle and main
verb this would be best translated something like this:

"When Paul and Silas were praying, they sang hymns to God"

However, all translations I've found seem to separate the praying and
singing, rather than make the singing related to the praying. Why
would that be? It seems to lose the meaning of the participle, or am I
over-emphasising the meaning of the participle?



Here are sample translations:

(ASV)  But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing
hymns unto God, and the prisoners were listening to them;

(ESV)  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to
God, and the prisoners were listening to them,

(GB)  Nowe at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sung Psalmes vnto
God: and the prisoners heard them.

(KJV)  And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto
God: and the prisoners heard them.

(LITV)  And having prayed, toward midnight Paul and Silas praised God
in a hymn. And the prisoners listened to them. [Here Green even makes
praying prior to singing!]

(MKJV)  And toward midnight Paul and Silas prayed and praised God in a
hymn. And the prisoners listened to them.

(NET)  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying98 and singing hymns
to God, and the rest of the prisoners were listening to them. [Note:
Grk "praying, were singing." The participle προσευχόμενοι
(proseucomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to
requirements of contemporary English style.]

(Vulgate)  media autem nocte Paulus et Silas adorantes laudabant Deum
et audiebant eos qui in custodia erant [Here keeps participle but uses
adorantes instead of orantes!]

(F F Bruce) At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns
to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

--
Craig Johnson
Brisbane, Australia
Blog Experiment: http://bloggledegook.blogspot.com/


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