“Through the Spirit” is taken by the Good News Translation to mean by the power of the Spirit (see 1.2). This reference to “through the Spirit” may be expressed in many languages as a type of causative “it was the Spirit (or the Holy Spirit) which caused him to predict.” In still other languages one may say “he predicted, the Holy Spirit told him to.” This would indicate the causative force as well as the source of such divine revelation.

Predicted is literally “to indicate” or “to signify” (the word in Greek is related to the root meaning “sign”; see 2.19), but commentators and translators agree that the meaning here is “predict” (see New English Bible; and “foretold” in Revised Standard Version and Phillips).

The Greek term translated here as earth (the same Greek term also occurs in 17.6, 31; 19.27; 24.5) means “the inhabited earth,” or “the civilized world” and is equivalent to “the Roman Empire.”

Claudius was emperor from A.D. 41 to 54, and evidently his reign was characterized by famines in various parts of the known world. In Palestine the famine was particularly severe around A.D. 46. The statement (It came when Claudius was Emperor.) is parenthetical, and so placed in parenthesis by the Good News Translation (also Zürcher Bibel).

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 .