The term believers may require some grammatical goal, for example, “all those who believed in Jesus.”

Continued together in close fellowship includes the same Greek expression which was rendered “in all” (1.15) and “in one place” (2.1). The meaning of the phrase here seems to be that they were drawn together in Christian fellowship (see New English Bible “all whose faith had drawn them together”) rather than that they were all living in one place (see Jerusalem Bible “the faithful all lived together”). The expression continued together in close fellowship is an excellent rendering in English of a rather abstract expression in Greek. In other languages, however, quite different forms may be required, for example, “they remained near one another,” “they continued to be one group,” “they continued as a loyal group,” or “they were very much together.”

Shared their belongings with one another correctly translates the meaning of “they were having all things in common.” As is indicated in the following verse, the believers did not immediately give up everything they possessed or give their goods to a common community storehouse. Verse 45 indicates that they only gave up something when there was a specific need within the Christian community; and the fact that Barnabas received so much attention from the selling of his piece of property would further indicate that this was not something everyone in the Christian community was doing. Shared their belongings may be rendered in some languages as “They brought together what they owned and used them together,” “each one’s things belonged to all of them,” or “they gave to one another what was needed.”

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 .