This is a very brief sentence in Greek, consisting of only six words. For the English reader, however, there are certain ambiguities if it is rendered literally (see Revised Standard Version “And when they read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation”); and so this necessitates a longer sentence than appears in Greek. If the first “they” is qualified as the people, there is no problem of understanding the referent of the next “they.” In Greek there is no object expressed, but what they read was the letter. “At the encouragement” is an evident reference to the message of encouragement (contained in the letter). It may be necessary to shift the passive expression were filled to an active one and to make somewhat more explicit the relationship between message and encouragement. Moreover, the people are the ones who have joy and are being encouraged; therefore one may restructure this second clause as “the message encouraged the people and filled them with joy” or “… caused them to have great joy.”

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 .