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Text critical issues=small word differences Clarity of original=clear Importance=normal (All still tentative.)
OET (OET-RV) When they heard about a dead person coming back to life, some started mocking but others said, “We’d like to hear more about this from you another time.”
OET-LV And having_heard about a_resurrection of_the_dead, on_one_hand they were_mocking, on_the_other_hand they said:
We_will_be_hearing from_you concerning this also again.
SR-GNT Ἀκούσαντες δὲ ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, οἱ μὲν ἐχλεύαζον, οἱ δὲ εἶπαν, “Ἀκουσόμεθά σου περὶ τούτου καὶ πάλιν.” ‡
(Akousantes de anastasin nekrōn, hoi men eⱪleuazon, hoi de eipan, “Akousometha sou peri toutou kai palin.”)
Key: khaki:verbs, light-green:nominative/subject, orange:accusative/object, pink:genitive/possessor.
Note: Automatic aligning of the OET-RV to the LV is done by some temporary software, hence the OET-RV alignments are incomplete (and may occasionally be wrong).
ULT Now hearing of the resurrection of the dead, some indeed mocked, but others said, “We will hear you also again concerning this.”
UST When the philosophers heard Paul say that a man had become alive again after he had died, some of them laughed at him. But others asked him to come back and tell them about it another day.
BSB § When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to mock him, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this topic.”
BLB Now having heard of a resurrection of the dead, some indeed began to mock him, but some said, "We will hear you concerning this again also."
AICNT Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again concerning this.”
OEB On hearing of a resurrection of the dead, some began jeering, but others said that they wanted to hear what he had to say about that another time.
WEBBE Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”
WMBB (Same as above)
NET Now when they heard about the resurrection from the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
LSV And having heard of a resurrection of the dead, some, indeed, were mocking, but others said, “We will hear you again concerning this”;
FBV Some of them laughed when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, while others said, “Please come back so we can hear more about this later.”
TCNT Now when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We wish to hear about this from yoʋ again.”
T4T When the men of the council heard Paul say that ◄a man had become alive again after he had died/someone had been raised from the dead►, some of them laughed scornfully. But others said, “We (exc) would like you (sg) to tell us more about this, some other time.”
LEB Now when they[fn] heard about the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We will hear you about this again also.”
17:32 *Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“heard about”) which is understood as temporal
BBE Now on hearing about the coming back from death, some of them made sport of it, but others said, Let us go more fully into this another time.
Moff No Moff ACTs book available
Wymth When they heard Paul speak of a resurrection of dead men, some began to scoff. But others said, "We will hear you again on that subject."
ASV Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, We will hear thee concerning this yet again.
DRA And when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead, some indeed mocked, but others said: We will hear thee again concerning this matter.
YLT And having heard of a rising again of the dead, some, indeed, were mocking, but others said, 'We will hear thee again concerning this;'
Drby And when they heard [of the] resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and some said, We will hear thee again also concerning this.
RV Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, We will hear thee concerning this yet again.
Wbstr And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again concerning this matter .
KJB-1769 ¶ And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
(¶ And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee/you again of this matter. )
KJB-1611 ¶ And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, Wee will heare thee againe of this matter.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above)
Bshps And when they hearde of the resurrection from the dead, some mocked, and other sayde, we wyll heare thee agayne of this matter.
(And when they heard of the resurrection from the dead, some mocked, and other said, we will hear thee/you again of this matter.)
Gnva Now when they heard of the resurrection from the dead, some mocked, and other sayde, We will heare thee againe of this thing.
(Now when they heard of the resurrection from the dead, some mocked, and other said, We will hear thee/you again of this thing. )
Cvdl Whan they herde of the resurreccion of the deed, some mocked. But some sayde: We wyl heare the agayne of this matter.
(When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But some said: We will hear the again of this matter.)
TNT When they hearde of the resurreccion from deeth some mocked and other sayde: we will heare the agayne of this matter.
(When they heard of the resurrection from death some mocked and other said: we will hear the again of this matter. )
Wycl And whanne thei hadden herd the ayenrysing of deed men, summe scorneden, and summe seiden, We schulen here thee eft of this thing.
(And when they had heard the ayenrysing of dead men, some scorneden, and some said, We should here thee/you after of this thing.)
Luth Da sie höreten die Auferstehung der Toten, da hatten‘s etliche ihren Spott; etliche aber sprachen: Wir wollen dich davon weiter hören.
(So they/she/them heard the Auferstehung the/of_the Toten, there hatten‘s several your Spott; several but said: We wollen you/yourself davon further listenn.)
ClVg Cum audissent autem resurrectionem mortuorum, quidam quidem irridebant, quidam vero dixerunt: Audiemus te de hoc iterum.
(Since audissent however resurrectionem mortuorum, quidam indeed irridebant, quidam vero dixerunt: Audiemus you(sg) about this again. )
UGNT ἀκούσαντες δὲ ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, οἱ μὲν ἐχλεύαζον, οἱ δὲ εἶπαν, ἀκουσόμεθά σου περὶ τούτου καὶ πάλιν.
(akousantes de anastasin nekrōn, hoi men eⱪleuazon, hoi de eipan, akousometha sou peri toutou kai palin.)
SBL-GNT Ἀκούσαντες δὲ ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν οἱ μὲν ἐχλεύαζον οἱ δὲ εἶπαν Ἀκουσόμεθά σου ⸂περὶ τούτου καὶ πάλιν⸃.
(Akousantes de anastasin nekrōn hoi men eⱪleuazon hoi de eipan Akousometha sou ⸂peri toutou kai palin⸃.)
TC-GNT Ἀκούσαντες δὲ ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, οἱ μὲν ἐχλεύαζον· οἱ δὲ [fn]εἶπον, Ἀκουσόμεθά σου [fn]πάλιν περὶ τούτου.
(Akousantes de anastasin nekrōn, hoi men eⱪleuazon; hoi de eipon, Akousometha sou palin peri toutou. )
Key for above GNTs: yellow:punctuation differs, red:words differ (from our SR-GNT base).
17:32 The Athenians listened carefully until Paul spoke of the resurrection of the dead (17:31); at that point some laughed or mocked, for the notion of resurrection was foolish to Greek ears (see 1 Cor 15:12-19). Similarly, the Jews in Jerusalem later listened carefully to Paul until he mentioned God’s acceptance of the Gentiles (Acts 22:22). These are examples of how the message of Good News can offend people because of their prejudices (see 1 Cor 1:20-25).
The Unknown God
When Paul spoke to the Areopagus, the “high council of the city” of Athens (Acts 17:19), he was speaking to people who did not share his faith in the God of Abraham and Moses who had revealed himself “many times and in many ways to [his] ancestors through the prophets” (Heb 1:1). The members of his audience had a very different definition of the divine. A host of divinities inhabited their world, and the common people retained much of their belief in the ancient gods. But many of the cultural elite of Athens no longer believed in the gods in any literal sense. Instead, they held to either a form of materialism (the physical is everything) or pantheism (the divine inhabits everything).
What they all shared in common was the absence of the idea that there is one true God who is Lord of all. Their myths told of the activities of various gods, but they did not have faith that the ultimate reality, God himself, could be known. Instead, they reasoned and discussed “the latest ideas,” hoping for a better understanding of the nature of things.
There were a wide variety of philosophical ideas current in Athens when Paul visited, but two main schools of thought dominated, Stoicism and Epicureanism (Acts 17:18).
Zeno of Citium (334~262 BC) founded Stoicism. Stoics studied nature’s laws and believed in the Logos, a pervasive organizing and sustaining force that gives all things their essential nature and so gives life and reason to humanity. The good life is one in which reason rules, and peace of mind and harmony with nature prevail. Many prominent statesmen were Stoics or influenced by Stoicism, including Cicero, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. Stoic ideas proved attractive to some Christians because of the similarities between the Stoic logos and the divine Logos (John 1:1-18), and between the idea of natural law and the law of God.
Those who followed Epicurus (341–270 BC) were empiricists; they relied upon sense experience (as opposed to reason) for knowledge. Epicureans were concerned with natural evidence and were unenthusiastic about mathematics. Their focus was ethics, the study of right behavior; they judged the value of an action or thing in terms of the pleasure or pain it brought. Epicurus saw belief in gods (meddling and powerful beings who terrified ordinary mortals) as a serious threat to tranquility. For him and his followers, neither the gods nor death (which is the end) should be feared.
When Paul spoke in that context, he used their own poets to proclaim things that they could barely comprehend: That the God who made everything is both personal and knowable; that he revealed himself clearly, historically, and definitively in Jesus Christ; that death is not followed by either the cessation of existence or the migration of the soul, but by judgment; and that the proof of all of this is the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
What was foolishness to most of the Greeks of Athens turns out to be the ultimate truth: God is knowable, and can be known through Jesus Christ.
Passages for Further Study
Ps 50:7-15; Isa 42:5-7; Acts 17:16-32; Rom 1:18-32; Col 1:15-23; 2:6-12; 1 Thes 1:9-10; Heb 1:1-4
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj
νεκρῶν
˱of˲_/the/_dead
Luke is using the adjective dead as a noun in order to indicate a group of people. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could translate this word with an equivalent phrase. Alternate translation: [of those who have died]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / exclusive
ἀκουσόμεθά
˱we˲_/will_be/_hearing
By We, these philosophers mean themselves but not Paul, so use the exclusive form of that word in your translation if your language marks that distinction.
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / explicitinfo
καὶ πάλιν
also again
It might seem that the expression also again contains extra information that would be unnatural to express in your language. If so, you could shorten it. Alternate translation: [again] or [another time]
Note 4 topic: writing-endofstory
This is the end of the part of the story about Paul in Athens.
(Occurrence 0) ἀκούσαντες
/having/_heard_‹about›
These are the people who were present at the Areopagus, listening to Paul.
(Occurrence 0) οἱ μὲν ἐχλεύαζον
they on_one_hand /were/_mocking
These did not believe it was possible for someone to die and then return to life. Alternate translation: [some ridiculed Paul] or [some laughed at Paul]