The closest equivalent of they were annoyed is in many languages simply “they were angry” or “they did not like it.”

Teaching the people that Jesus had risen from death, which proved that the dead will rise to life translates “teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” The Good News Translation, along with many commentaries and translations, treats the phrase “proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” as meaning that they were using the case of Jesus’ resurrection to prove that others would be raised from the dead (see Jerusalem Bible “teaching the people the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead by proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus”; Zürcher Bibel “they taught the people and proclaimed on the basis of the example of Jesus the resurrection from the dead”).

The short expression in the Greek text “announcing in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” is justifiably expanded into two clauses in the Good News Translation, for there are evidently two relations of Jesus to the resurrection. First, the fact that he himself rose from the dead, and second, the fact that this proved that people generally would rise from the dead. Since this was directly contradictory to the doctrine of the Sadducees, it is understandable that they would be “annoyed.”

The passive expression had risen can be shifted into an active, for example, “God had raised Jesus from the dead,” but one can also use a form which may omit an agent, such as “Jesus rose from among the dead.”

Some languages may prefer to make a complete sentence of the last clause, for example, “This proved the dead would be raised to life” or “What happened to Jesus showed that the people who are dead would live again.” At the same time one must be sure to avoid in an expression such as “live again” the notion of resuscitation.

As is so often the case with verbs of teaching or explaining, it may be necessary to put some of the content into the form of direct discourse, for example, “talked to the people and said, Jesus has risen from the dead.” The relation between the two events of rising may be expressed as “saying, Jesus rose from the dead. Therefore people will rise from the dead.”

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 .