Acts 14:16

In ¹  past ²  generations he allowed all the nations ³  to go their own ways,

In the past, he let all nations go their own way.

"In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways;

In earlier days he permitted all the nations to go their own ways,

"In the generations before us, God let all the different nations go their own way.

Who in the past let all nations go in the ways which seemed good to them.

In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways;

"who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways.

In ¹  past ²  generations he allowed all the nations ³  to go their own ways,

¹ tn Grk “them, who in.” The relative pronoun (“who”) was replaced by the pronoun “he” (“In past generations he”) and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek and the awkwardness of two relative clauses (“who made the heaven” and “who in past generations”) following one another.

² tn On this term see BDAG 780 s.v. παροίχομαι. The word is a NT hapax legomenon.

³ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (in Greek the word for “nation” and “Gentile” is the same). The plural here alludes to the variety of false religions in the pagan world.