The first clause of verse 9 he made no difference between us and them may be translated as “he showed that there was no difference between us and them” or, as in some languages more specifically, “he showed that both we and they were to become believers in the same way.” The distinction between us and them must be made clear in some languages—for example, “we who are Jews and they who are Gentiles.”

The participial phrase in Greek (literally “having cleansed their heart”) is taken by some in a causal sense (see New English Bible and Jerusalem Bible), while the Good News Translation takes it as an expression of manner or means. “To cleanse one’s heart” is equivalent in meaning to “to remove the sin from one’s heart” which is what the New Testament means by forgiveness, that is, the removal of sin which separates one from God. The noun phrase “by faith” is possibly ambiguous if rendered literally, and so has been transformed into a verbal clause because they believed.

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 .