In some languages there is no term for jealous which covers this particular area of meaning. Therefore one may have to describe the basis for their feeling—for example, “the Jews were angry that so many people joined with Paul and Silas.”

Loafers from the streets is literally “men of the market place.” Commentators agree that this expression is used in a bad sense, referring either to persons who were “lazy” or to “trouble makers.” The Good News Translation has taken this term in combination with the word worthless (literally “evil”), and renders the whole phrase worthless loafers from the streets. Formed a mob (see An American Translation*, Moffatt, Barclay) appears much more in keeping with the context than the more generic statement “gathered a crowd” (Phillips). In some languages a mob is rendered as “noisy crowd” or “angry crowd.”

The subject they of the second part of verse 5 must include not only the worthless loafers but also the Jews who had formed them into a mob. In some languages this must be specified as “the Jews and the rest of the mob.” Otherwise it may imply that only the worthless loafers … attacked the home of Jason.

Set the whole city in an uproar is equivalent to “caused a riot.” In some languages this is simply “made a lot of noise” or “caused much angry noise.”

It is necessary in some languages to specify the particular way in which the home of Jason was attacked. Most languages have a number of words for attacking a person, but not so many for attacking a house. One can say “they threw rocks on the house,” but under the circumstances it is probably better to say “they broke down the doors of the house,” since this was apparently what happened in their attempt to find Paul and Silas and to bring them out to the people.

Jason was a common name in Greek and was often used by Jews in place of the more Jewish sounding “Joshua.” Nothing further is known about Jason; he may have been a believer, or he may have been the person for whom Paul was working in the city. The phrase to the people may refer either to the mob that had been gathered or to “the town assembly” (New English Bible; see Jerusalem Bible “People’s Assembly”), by which is meant the citizens assembled for judicial purposes. This same phrase is translated to the people in 12.21.

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 .