Tremendous (Jerusalem Bible “great”) translates one of Luke’s favorite emphatic expressions (literally, “not a little bit”; see 14.28; 15.2; 17.4, 12; 19.23, 24; 27.20). This expression of tremendous confusion may be expressed as “the soldiers who had guarded Peter were terribly disturbed,” or as in some languages “fearfully confused” or “afraid and confused.” The question what had happened to Peter? must be introduced by some verb of speaking in some languages, for example, “they kept saying to one another, what has happened to Peter?”

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 .