The expression the following night means “the night following the day on which Paul had been before the Council.” In some languages this is rendered as “that night.”

Though this appearance of the Lord is interpreted by some as being a vision, there is no specific indication in the Greek text that this was the case. Only by implication of the appearance being at night may one argue that this was the appearance of the Lord to Paul in a dream. It is best simply to render the text as it appears, without specifying dream or vision.

Courage has been rendered both as “take courage” (Revised Standard Version) and “keep up your courage” (New English Bible). The former of these two possibilities seems to fit the Greek better.

Given your witness … do the same actually translates two different verbs (note Revised Standard Version “have testified … must bear witness”), but it is best to regard these essentially as synonyms (note Moffatt “testified … must testify” and New English Bible “affirmed the truth about me … do the same”).

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 .