Acts 18:4 (Paul Was Discussing and Persuading)

Greek (THGNT): διελέγετο δὲ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ κατὰ πᾶν σάββατον, ἔπειθέν τε Ἰουδαίους καὶ Ἕλληνας.

NABRE: "Every sabbath, he entered into discussions in the synagogue, attempting to convince both Jews and Greeks."

NET: "He addressed both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue every Sabbath, attempting to persuade them."

NWT 2013: "He would give a talk in the synagogue every sabbath and would persuade Jews and Greeks."

Greek Verbs, Denotation, and Aktionsart: Two important words in this passage are the verbs, διελέγετο (imperfect middle indicative 3rd person singular of διαλέγομαι) and ἔπειθέν (imperfect active indicative 3rd person singular of πείθω).

The NET Bible prefers to render διελέγετο with "addressed" since the classical meaning of the word does not seem to fit the context in Acts 18:4. Eckhard J. Schanabel indicates that Paul "led discussions" in the synagogue: he refers us to Acts 17:2. Compare Acts 20:7.

NET treats ἔπειθέν as a conative imperfect (attempting to X); NABRE does the same, but Schnabel acknowledges that while translators customarily treat ἔπειθέν like a conative imperfect, he sees no reason why the verb cannot have an "ongoing sense" in view of the fact that Paul's discussions produced results among the Jews and Greeks in Corinth. 

Robertson's Word Pictures in the NT makes this comment on ἔπειθέν: "Imperfect active, conative, he tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks (God-fearers who alone would come)."

Susan Wendel concedes that we possibly have a conative imperfect in Acts 18:4, but she points toward Acts 18:8, which might suggest that Paul had a measure of success when he talked to the Jews in Corinth. See Scriptural Interpretation and Community Self-Definition in Luke-Acts, pages 185-186.

The LEB translates Acts 18:4: "And he argued in the synagogue every Sabbath, attempting to persuade both Jews and Greeks"

The Footnote reads: "Here the imperfect verb has been translated as conative ('attempting to persuade')"

However, a warning about conatives is given here: https://brill.com/view/journals/nt/62/3/article-p302_4.xml