Those regions refers back to the territory of Macedonia (v. 1), and would probably have included the communities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.

The people must be understood as a reference to the believers in “those regions” just referred to (see New English Bible “to the Christians there”).

Most translators take the expression “much word” to suggest that Paul spoke many words to them on one occasion: “he said many words of encouragement to them” (Jerusalem Bible). However, “word” is perhaps to be taken in the sense of “message,” and with the meaning that Paul spoke several messages of encouragement to the Christians there: encouraged the people with many messages (see New English Bible “often speaking words of encouragement”).

It is thought by most commentators that Greece refers specifically to Corinth.

As in a number of passages, one must be constantly aware of the problems of translating “go” and “come.” In most languages one must preserve the same point of view constantly: either that of the principal character of the story (in this case Paul), or of the writer who is narrating the series of events. It would, therefore, be quite strange to say went through those regions and came to Greece unless one wishes specifically to imply that Luke himself is all the time in Greece. In that case, however, one would assume that the first verb would be “came through those regions,” since this would be presumably Paul’s journey from Ephesus to Greece. In most languages one must adopt the viewpoint of the principal character, and therefore it would be “went through those regions” and “went on to Greece.”

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 .