The simultaneous character of certain events is clearly marked by the clauses Peter was still trying to understand.

It may be necessary in this context to use the full expression “Holy Spirit” rather than merely Spirit since the relationship of Spirit to visions might imply in some languages not the Holy Spirit but some other kind of spirit.

The introductory particle often translated “behold” is far more accurately rendered in this context as Listen!

Three men, that is, the two household servants and the soldier, appears in some manuscripts as “two men” (meaning the two servants without reference to the soldier escorting them), and in others by “some” as New English Bible and Jerusalem Bible. The manuscript evidence favors three and, if it were original, the change to “two” may be explained as the work of a scribe who sought to make the text conform with what he read in verse 7, where the two servants are understood as messengers and the soldier as a guard to accompany them. The rendering “some” appears to be an attempt not to face the problem occasioned by the inclusion of numeral.

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 .