That Egyptian fellow may be rendered as “that man from Egypt.” Started a revolution may be rendered as “caused an uprising against the government” or “caused fighting against the government.”

The term which the Good News Translation has rendered armed terrorists (New English Bible “terrorists”) has been translated in a variety of fashions: “assassins” (Phillips, Moffatt, Dios Habla Hoy), “cut-throats” (Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, An American Translation*); it has been transliterated by La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée with a footnote explaining the meaning of the term. These men were extreme nationalists and considered themselves the enemies of all Romans and of all Jews who were pro-Roman; they got their name from the small dagger which they carried with them and by which they would execute their enemies as they mingled with the crowds at the various festivals. By spelling the word with a capital A (“the Assassins”), the Revised Standard Version and Barclay have tried to indicate that they were a special group among the Jews and not just a spontaneous group of cutthroats. The verb rendered started a revolution (see New English Bible “started a revolt”) is the same verb translated caused trouble in 17.6. It is quite unlikely that the Egyptian fellow referred to considered himself to be the Messiah; it seems more probable that he was merely a rebel who believed that God would help his revolution.

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 .