Everyone in the city, from all classes of society is literally “all from little unto great,” an idiom used to include all members of a given group. The Jerusalem Bible renders this phrase “eminent citizens and ordinary people alike.” In some languages the equivalent of this expression is “all the people, little people and big people.”

Paid close attention to him is the same verb as used in verse 6 above; Barclay translates “listened eagerly to.” The commentators agree that The Great Power is a name referring to the Highest God and not merely to one who possesses a great power from God. What the people believed was that Simon himself was a manifestation of God.

If one is to render correctly the meaning of he is that power of God known as The Great Power, it is often necessary to restructure the expression rather radically in order for the reader to understand that the people regarded Simon as a kind of god. The closest equivalent to this may be “The god called The Great Power has come down in the form of Simon” or “Simon is the one who the god, known as The Great Power, has become.”

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 .