In some languages it is difficult to say entered Jerusalem, since one only enters an enclosure, such as a house or temple, and cities are not in this same class of enclosed objects. Under such circumstances one can “go to,” “arrive at,” or even “walk past the borders of.”

The room is literally “the room upstairs,” and this word is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in Acts 9.37, 39 and 20.8. The type of room referred to is a tower-like construction built on the flat roof of an oriental house and reached by a stairway from the outside. Nothing further is known regarding the identity of this particular room.

Staying translates a word that is often used in the papyri to refer to a temporary residence as opposed to a place of permanent residence. One may need to translate as “where they were remaining temporarily” or even “where they were living for a short time.”

The problems of transliteration of proper names are entirely too complex to be treated in this passage, and by the time one has come to Acts basic decisions on transliteration must have already been worked out.

As can be seen clearly from the Greek text, the names in this list are grouped in a rather unusual way. The first four names form a unit, while the next four names are paired off, and the following three are listed in a series with special identification. The Good News Translation has attempted to reproduce something of this structure, but in a form much more natural than the literal rendering employed in the Revised Standard Version.

The Patriot identifies Simon as a member of the Zealot party, a group of Jewish nationals who advocated the violent overthrow of Roman rule. Judas is the son of James and not the brother of James, as some translations have it. There is nothing in the New Testament which permits one to identify this Judas with Judas the brother of James in Mark 6.3 or Jude 1.

For many languages there is a ready equivalent of “patriot,” but in certain instances a descriptive phrase must be employed, for example, “one who wanted independence for his country” or “one who opposed the foreign rulers of his country.”

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 .