The expression Barnabas came to his help is equivalent in many languages to “Barnabas helped him.”

Took him to the apostles must imply “took him in order to talk with the apostles.” It is not simply that Paul was led to the apostles but was brought by Barnabas so they might talk with the apostles.

So as to avoid a possible misunderstanding of the Greek sentence (literally “and that he had spoken to him”) the Good News Translation has translated and that the Lord had spoken to him (see Phillips “and how the Lord had spoken to him”). Boldly … had preached translates one verb which appears six other times in Acts (9.28; 13.46; 14.3; 18.26; 19.8; 26.26), and is related to the noun discussed in 2.29.

It may be necessary in some languages to specify where the road was, for example, “on the road to Damascus.”

It is often not easy to translate the term boldly since so much depends upon the particular context and situation. The meaning of boldly can be effectively reproduced in a number of ways, for example, “he did not care to whom he was speaking,” “he would speak to everyone just the same,” “he had no fear when he was talking,” or “he would say everything regardless of who was listening.” All of these expressions define in one way or another the concept of boldness in a communication.

If one wishes to retain a specific reference to name it may be necessary to employ an expression such as “preached, using the name of Jesus.”

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 .