It seems to have been customary for the Jewish Council to have sat in a semicircle with the accused persons standing before them. Whatever the reason for the arrest, it becomes immediately evident that the concern of the Council is to learn by what authority the apostles performed the miracle on the lame man. Within the composition of Acts itself the question put to the disciples serves primarily as a literary technique for introducing another message by Peter. As given in the Greek, the emphatic element in the question is you; and in order to make this evident to the reader, the Good News Translation has prefaced the questions regarding the power and the name with the question, How did you do this?

The expression they made the apostles stand before them is a causative of commanding and therefore in many languages it must be rendered as “they commanded the apostles, Stand before us.” In some instances it may be necessary to identify the particular apostles concerned as “Peter and John.”

In most languages there is no difficulty involved in having a multiple subject for a verb such as “asked.” However, this is not possible in other languages and therefore one must say “one of them asked,” since presumably only one person would be speaking on behalf of the others.

The question How did you do this? may need to be made somewhat more specific since the reference to the healing of the lame man is somewhat removed from this verse, for example, “How did you make the lame man well?” or “How did you make the lame man walk?”

In most instances a term such as power must either be qualified as belonging to some person or being of a particular character. Therefore, “By whose power did you do this?” or “By what kind of power did you do this?” In some languages, however, a term such as power as used in this more or less abstract sense, is not available. Therefore, one must translate “How is it you were able to do this?” or “Who made you strong enough to do this?” This type of reference to “strength” must, of course, be understood as being more than physical prowess.

The expression whose name did you use? must be made slightly more specific in some languages as “whose name did you pronounce when you did this?” or “whose name did you say when you healed the man?”

In many languages, however, the use of name has very little meaning, and therefore a more satisfactory equivalent is “by whose authority” or “who gave you the right.”

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 .