In Greek, verses 17 and 18 comprise one sentence that begins with the word translated in the King James Version as “rose up.” This is the same word that is used in verse 6 and does not indicate whether the High Priest was sitting or lying down before he got up. It is used simply to indicate the initiation of an action, and is translated by the Good News Translation so they decided to take action (see New English Bible “… were goaded into action”). In many languages High Priest is rendered as “the big priest,” “the chief of the priests,” or “the priest who commands the other priests.”

His companions are “his henchmen” or, as in some languages, “his helpers” or “his followers.” (See also 5.21b.)

The appositional phrase members of the local party of the Sadducees must be clearly marked as apposition in some languages, for example, “his followers, that is to say, the members of the local party of the Sadducees” or “his followers who were part of the local group of the Sadducees.”

In translating party it is useful to employ a term which designates primarily a political group, not a religious group, for in this context the emphasis is upon the political role of the Sadducees.

In the phrase the local party of the Sadducees, local translates a Greek participial construction which is taken by commentators to mean “what is current in time or local in place.” Similar constructions are also found in 11.22 and 13.1.

It is interesting that throughout the book of Acts the Pharisees, who were representative of the heart of Judaism, are presented as generally favorable toward the Christian movement, whereas the Sadducees are strongly opposed to the Christian community.

In many languages jealous is expressed by an idiomatic phrase, for example, “their hearts burned” or “their livers were yellow.” In some instances, however, one must employ a rather full description of precisely what was involved, such as “they were not happy because everybody liked the apostles” or “they were unhappy because the apostles were doing so much.”

The verb take action must sometimes specify the goal, particularly when some kind of opposition is involved, for example, “to take action against the apostles” or “to make the apostles suffer.”

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 .