All three of these last translations come from the KJV tradition. The first was from the NRSV and reads very comfortably to me. Notice that all three use the term “warn” as opposed to “threaten” as is found in some of the other translations. Warn seems to be a friendly gesture in order to prevent something bad from happening. Of course there is also the angry expression, “I’m warning you!” that is not so friendly, so I’m really not sure that it matters so much, except my personal preference being for all those that don’t use “warn.”

  • “What will we do with them? For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it. But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.”
    NRSV

The ESV makes a few alternate translations here and I think it falls flat. The NRSV is more readable, and the ESV shows some of the awkward word order that is my main problem with this translation. It doesn’t make it unintelligible, but it isn’t the best of the bunch in this example.

  • “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.”
    ESV

The final translation is from the NASB (updated). Someone posted in the comments to the original post that they liked the phrase “a noteworthy miracle” in this translation. I agree that it works well here but I don’t really have a strong preference for any of the various renderings of that phrase. The most interesting choice in the NASB is the masculine usage at the end, where every other translation I looked at has “anyone.” I am not really sensitive to gender language any more. I am still capable of reading masculine language as applying to all of mankind, so it’s become less of an issue to me than it was in the past. I now read the TNIV as my primary Bible, but I could just as easily use the NASB I suppose.

  • “What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name.”
    NASB

Thanks for reading from my short series. It has been a fun comparison for me, and overall a fairly representative look at the way many popular translations chose to translate Acts 4:16-17.

Update
Original post, follow up posts: part 1, part 2, and part 3.