In the Greek, defended himself is a participle having a pronoun subject “he,” which the Good News Translation has made explicit as Paul. Shouted is literally “said with a loud voice.” The use of the present tense along with the emphatic expression “with a loud voice” means either shouted or “shouted at the top of his voice” (New English Bible).

The term mad in this context means “insane” and may be translated in various ways—for example, “out of your mind,” “you are no longer yourself,” “you cannot think straight,” or “your thoughts are twisted.”

Great learning is a phrase which describes not merely elementary knowledge but also higher learning. In this type of context, great learning may be rendered as “because you have studied so much” or even, as in some languages, “because you have read so much.”

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 .