They drew lots to choose between the two names translates “they gave them lots.” The precise meaning of this clause is unclear, but the next clause (literally, “the lot fell on Matthias”) helps to clarify it. These two clauses when taken together seem to indicate that the choice was made in a manner similar to that in which the Urim and the Thummin were used in Old Testament times. The names, written on stone, would have been placed in a vessel which was then shaken; the first stone to fall out would indicate the man chosen.

The phrase drew lots involves a number of complications in some languages. In the first place, where the custom does exist, one may have a number of different types of expressions to identify the procedure, for example, “threw down the names,” “picked up the lots,” or “saw the way the names fell.” At the same time it is important that any expression for the casting of lots does not involve heavy connotations of magic.

Where the custom of casting lots is not known, one can employ a kind of descriptive equivalent, for example, “decided which person it would be by writing the names on pieces of stone,” with a fuller explanation of the possible procedures and their cultural function in a marginal note.

In a number of languages one does not choose between the two names but “must choose between the two men.”

The use of choose would imply some agent, but it would be both awkward and ill-advised to try to introduce God as the specific manipulator of the lots. Rather, one may often have an equivalent such as “the lot showed that the right man was Matthias” or “the name on the lot was that of Matthias.”

He was added to the group translates the Greek word which appears only here in the New Testament. Originally the verb meant “to choose (by a vote) together with,” but in this verse the meaning seems to be simply “to be added (to the eleven apostles).”

The passive expression he was added to the group may need to be put into an active form, for example, “the believers considered Matthias as one of the twelve.”

Languages differ considerably in the ways in which they specify the relation of one person to others, for example, “he was one with the eleven,” “he was one among the twelve,” “he was added to the eleven,” or “with the eleven he became the twelfth.”

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 .