Luke begins this verse with one of his favorite transitional formulas (literally “and it happened”), which may be indicated in translation merely by the introduction of a paragraph, and since a new paragraph is begun at this point, the Good News Translation has made the mention of the subject explicit: Paul.

After three days may be rendered in some languages as “three days later” or “after Paul had been in Rome for three days.”

The verb called must be translated in some languages as “invited to a meeting” or “asked them to come see him.”

In order to specify that the Jewish leaders in this instance were those in Rome and not the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem, the term local has been employed.

On my brothers see 2.29. It is obvious that in the present context reference is not made to fellow believers, but to fellow Jews.

In Greek, the first word in Paul’s address is I, placed in an emphatic position. It was important for Paul to point out several matters: (1) that the accusations made against him by the Jews were false; (2) that he was not found guilty by the Roman government and would have been released, had he not appealed to the Emperor; and (3) that he himself had no accusation to make against his own people.

I did nothing against our people may be translated as “I did not in any way harm our people.” In this quoted context the pronoun our is to be rendered as inclusive first person plural for those languages which make a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person. In speaking about doing nothing against … the customs, it may be necessary to say “I did not violate the customs” or “I did not speak against the customs,” with customs often being translated as “the way in which our people live.”

The customs that we received from our ancestors may be expressed more naturally in some languages as “the customs which our ancestors handed down to us.”

I was made a prisoner in Jerusalem may be translated in the active form as “the Jews caused me to be a prisoner in Jerusalem.”

The word rendered handed over always carries overtones of wrongdoing on the part of those who did the handing over; it is the same word used by Jesus in Luke 9.44 and 18.32.

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 .