With such violence that he defeated them actually translates a verb and a particle which are almost equal in meaning. The Good News Translation understands the participle as intensifying the force of the verb, and so has translated it in this way. (Note Jerusalem Bible “overpowered … and handled them so violently.”)

In some languages it is preferable to invert the order of events in the last sentence of verse 16—for example, “He wounded them and tore their clothes off and then they ran away from his house.”

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 .