In such contexts as the present, the literal expression “to open the mouth” means simply to speak. In Greek the conditional sentence beginning with if makes clear that Gallio is saying the matter is not one of some wrong or evil crime, and therefore he will not be patient with the Jews. Evil crime, a word which occurs only here in the New Testament (see the related word evil tricks in 13.10), originally meant “prank” or “mean trick,” but its connection with the word wrong seems to imply that for Luke and his readers it must have had a more serious connotation. “Crime” appears in New American Bible, Revised Standard Version, Twentieth Century New Testament, Moffatt; Jerusalem Bible translates both these terms together as “crime,” comparable to what the LUTHER Revised has done. On the other hand, some translators attempt to keep the etymological connection and so render “fraud” (Barclay) and “underhanded rascality” (C. B. Williams).

The passive expression that has been committed can be made active, with Paul as the subject—for example, “that this man Paul has committed.”

It would be reasonable for me may be rendered as “it would be only right for me” or “I would rightly be patient.”

The term patient, in this type of context, may be rendered as “listen to you attentively to the end,” “listening with understanding,” or even as in some languages “listen to you in a friendly way.”

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 .