Following Peter’s speech two men are nominated by the group: Joseph, who was called Barsabbas…, and Matthias. After the election of Matthias neither of these men is again mentioned in the New Testament.

The pronoun they refers undoubtedly to the entire group of believers. Accordingly, it is probably necessary to introduce the nominal expression at this point, for example, “the believers spoke the names of two men” or “the believers suggested the names of two men.”

The additional names of Joseph may need to be introduced in a somewhat different way in some languages, for example, “people also called him Barsabbas and they also called him Justus.” In other languages one may say, “he was also known as Barsabbas and some people called him Justus” or “he had two other names, Barsabbas and Justus.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .