Have an accusation against someone may be rendered as “wish to accuse someone” or “have reason to accuse someone.”

The regular days for court translates a rather unusual use of a word in Greek, but commentators and translators agree that this is the meaning. In referring to the regular days for court, one may say “the court is open regularly” or “on certain days one may come before the court.”

The authorities is literally “the (Roman) governors,” but there was only one Roman governor to a province, and so the term is best taken in a general sense, either of the governor himself or of one of his representatives who regularly held court in each of the Asian cities.

In a number of languages it may be useful to combine the two clauses there are the regular days for court and there are the authorities. One may say, for example, “on regular days the authorities sit in the court to judge cases.”

It is important that they in the last clause of verse 38 refer to Demetrius and his fellow workers and to such other persons as they may accuse. This final clause may be rendered in some languages as “there people can accuse one another.” This avoids a specific reference to Demetrius and the workers, but provides a general statement which is applicable to the immediately preceding clauses concerning the operation of the court.

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 .