They brought in some men to tell lies about him is literally “they set up false witnesses,” but the meaning of the noun phrase “false witnesses” is better understood when restructured into a verb phrase, as the Good News Translation has done.

Against our sacred temple and the Law of Moses translates “against this sacred place and the Law,” but the meaning of “this sacred place” is the Jerusalem temple, and “the Law” is obviously the Law of Moses. The translator should, of course, keep in mind that the term “Law,” although an accurate translation of the Greek word, does not convey fully the meaning of the word law in the Jewish setting. In Jewish life “law” referred essentially to the Law of Moses, the first five books of the Scriptures.

Sacred temple may be translated in some languages as “temple dedicated to God.” The Greek term which means “sacred” and “holy” must often be translated by quite different terms in receptor languages when it refers to different types of objects, for example, people, the Spirit of God, and objects such as the temple, ark, or priestly clothing. For objects, a rendering such as “dedicated to the worship of God” is often the most satisfactory.

The Law of Moses is quite naturally the law which comes from Moses, or the law which Moses gave, not the law which belonged to Moses. The meaning here is a secondary agent, because the law is described as coming primarily from God, but through Moses. In some instances, therefore, the appropriate rendering is “the Law through Moses.”

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 .