The account of Peter’s message as given in these verses has much in common with that in 3.13 ff.; not all the ideas are the same, but much of the wording is similar.

The so-called possessive relationship in the God of our fathers must be rather radically restructured in many languages, for example, “the God whom our fathers worshiped” or “the God whom our ancestors worshiped.” The equivalent of fathers may be “grandfathers,” “those of long ago,” or “our grandfathers who died long ago.”

From death has been added to the verb raised in order to make explicit that the resurrection is referred to, though it is possible that the reference is to the bringing of Jesus into the world (see 3.26). The context, however, seems to favor the interpretation given by the Good News Translation, since there follows immediately the affirmation that these people had been the ones responsible for killing Jesus.

The expression raised … from death cannot be literally translated in many languages. The equivalent may be “cause to get up from death,” “cause to come back from having died,” or “caused to live again.”

Nailing him to a cross is in Greek “by hanging him on a tree” and recalls the language of Deuteronomy 21.22. It should be noted, however, that the passage in Deuteronomy refers to the custom of hanging the dead body of an executed criminal on a tree, not the Roman method of execution by crucifixion.

Some languages may require some specific mention of the place of the nailing, therefore “nailed his hands and feet to a cross.”

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 .