As the Good News Translation makes clear, the Greek is in the form of a question which expects a “yes” answer; but the Good News Translation has divided this question into two parts for ease of understanding. In many languages one must specify to whom the question was addressed. Therefore, one can say “asked one another.”

In some instances one must make somewhat more specific the reference intended in the phrase on this name, for example, “Jesus.”

On the phrase arresting them and taking them back see verse 2. Killing (corresponding to a Greek word which appears only here and in Galatians 1.13 and 23) literally means “pillage,” or “destroy” (see New English Bible “trying to destroy”). Other translations see in this word an expression of the fact of the persecution rather than its outcome: “organized the attack” (Jerusalem Bible), “so bitterly persecuted” (Phillips), and “carried on a merciless campaign against” (Barclay).

Though these two questions are framed in such a way as to appear to be asking for information, they are in reality rhetorical questions indicating clearly a positive answer. In many languages the closest equivalent is a strong affirmative statement—for example, “This is certainly the man who in Jerusalem was killing those who worshiped Jesus. He surely came here for the very purpose of arresting such people and taking them back to the chief priests.”

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 .