That I thought they would must be taken to indicate that Festus thought Paul’s opponents would have charges of serious crimes to bring against him. Some translators render this phrase rather ambiguously, so that it suggests that the men did not bring serious crimes against Paul, and Festus knew all along that they would not (see Revised Standard Version “they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed”).

In some languages it may be useful to shift somewhat the order of clauses in this verse—for example, “his opponents stood up to accuse him, and I thought they would accuse him of evil crimes, but they did not accuse him of any such evil crimes.” This type of restructuring may be necessary in some languages, because the qualifying relative clause, that I thought they would, introduces something which is different from what is a normal characterization of evil crimes.

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 .