It is important at the beginning of verse 14 to have some type of transitional expression, which will help to shift the attention from what the crowd has said to what Peter is now going to reply, for example, “then,” “in response,” or “in answer to them.”

With the other eleven may be taken as the Good News Translation has translated it, or the phrase may be understood as a title (see New English Bible and Jerusalem Bible). In some languages it is necessary to state more precisely the relation of Peter to the other apostles. Did all of the twelve stand together, or was Peter, as one with the eleven, the only one to stand? He was certainly the only one to address the crowd. It would probably appear more natural to say, “Peter, who was with the eleven apostles, stood up.”

To “lift up one’s voice” (literally in the Greek) may merely mean “to begin to speak in a loud voice.” In a loud voice is more often rendered simply as “to speak loudly to” or “to shout to.”

It is interesting that the Greek verb which Luke has chosen for speak is one which places emphasis upon the high quality and articulate nature of the words spoken (see 2.4). The word occurs here, following the charge of drunkenness, and in 26.25 after the charge of madness.

The rendering fellow Jews is quite appropriate for this passage, since it not only identifies the audience but indicates a degree of identification between the speaker and the audience. In some languages the equivalent is “you who are Jews with us.” However, in some languages one cannot employ this type of vocative, except when one is actually calling to a person or group. Hence, such a reference must be related more specifically to the subject of the verb listen, for example, “You who are fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me.”

The two verbal expressions listen and let me tell you are really only emphatic supplements one of the other; they do not actually introduce any new information. Accordingly, in some languages only one verb is used, but it is often reinforced with some intensifier, for example, “pay very close attention to,” “listen well,” or idiomatically “open your ears well,” “track down closely my words.”

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 .