The Good News Translation marks the transition in activity by the particle so. This is a legitimate as well as a useful transitional device.

In English the lame man as well as Peter and John can be identified by pronouns, but in some languages one or another of the participants may need to be specified by nouns.

He looked at them is not the same verb as is used in the preceding verse (Look at us!), although in the context the meaning of both verbs are essentially the same. The Greek verb in this verse is actually one which normally occurs with a direct object (“fix [object] on someone”), but in this Greek sentence there is no object expressed. The object may either be one’s mind or one’s eyes; the Good News Translation takes it to mean he fixed his eyes on them, that is he looked at them.

It may not be easy to translate a term such as expecting. This may need to be shifted to a form such as “thought in himself (or even, said to himself), I will get something from them.”

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 .