Pleased the Jews may be rendered as “caused the Jews to be happy about this.”
He went ahead and had Peter arrested (literally, “he added to arrest Peter also”) reflects a Semitic idiom (“he added [to something]”) which appears quite frequently in the Old Testament (see also Luke 19.11; 20.11-12), and most translators have employed various types of restructuring, as in the Good News Translation. The concept of adding one crime to another may be expressed in some languages as “he did something else bad. He had Peter arrested” or “he did further evil; he ordered soldiers to arrest Peter.”
From the mention of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in this verse and of Passover in the following verse one might conclude that the Feast of Unleavened Bread preceded Passover. However, this is not the case, for the Passover was celebrated on the 14th day of the month Nisan (March-April) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated from the 15th to 21st day of the same month. Luke, a Gentile, seems to have identified these two terms as synonymous, for in Luke 22.1 he writes the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover.
An appropriate rendering of the expression Feast of Unleavened Bread is difficult in a number of languages. One can scarcely say “time when the people feasted on bread that did not rise,” although this is possible in some languages. In general the relationship of the Feast to Unleavened Bread is expressed as the name of the feast, for example, “during the time when people had a feast called the Feast with bread that did not rise.” Even the expression “unleavened” must be carefully selected for it might mean simply that someone had forgotten to put in the yeast. This is “bread in which no yeast has been placed” or, as in some languages, “bread without yeast.” In some areas of the world the equivalent of yeast is “beer foam” or “sourdough,” but in other areas it is “medicine that makes bread get large.” (Under such circumstances “medicine” is simply a general designation for any type of potent substance, whatever its origin or purpose.)
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 .