The exact relationship of to this very day to the rest of the sentence is ambiguous in Greek; it may be taken with I have been helped by God (as in the Good News Translation), or it may be taken with the verb I stand (as in the New English Bible “and so to this very day I stand and testify”). Have been helped by God may, of course, be placed in the active form as “God has helped me.”

The expression I stand here giving my witness to all may very well be translated in this kind of context as “I stand here to speak the truth to all.”

The small and great alike is a Semitic way of including all people. The idiomatic equivalent of to the small and great alike may be simply “to all men everywhere in the same way.” One may always reproduce something of the significance of this idiom by saying: “I tell the same truth to those of no importance and to those who are of great importance.”

What I say is the very same thing the prophets and Moses said was going to happen is the means by which Paul verifies the truth of his message. In a number of languages to say … the very same thing is represented by the use of a verb meaning “to agree”—for example, “what I say is going to happen agrees with what the prophets and Moses said was going to happen” or “what I say is going to happen is the very same thing the prophets and Moses said was going to happen.”

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 .