The verb translated spoke well of may also be understood in the sense of “thought highly of” (see An American Translation* and Moffatt). The passive verb form in the Greek text (literally “Timothy was spoken well of by all the brothers”) has been changed to an active form: all the brothers … spoke well of Timothy.

As in so many passages in Acts, there are problems involved in the translation of brothers. In languages in which this type of kinship term is obligatorily possessed (that is to say, in which the term brothers must occur with some kind of pronoun indicating whose brothers are involved), it is sometimes possible to use a standard form such as “our brothers” or, as in some languages, “our relatives”—provided, of course, that this type of expression can be used of people who associate together rather than those who are strictly biological brothers. After the introduction of we, which includes Luke in verse 10, the possessive usage “our brothers” may be quite appropriate. It can, however, be used even before this point in the text of Acts. On the other hand, in languages where there is no such kinship term which can be employed in this sense of persons who are closely united within a particular group, it may be necessary to employ some such phrase as “fellow believers” or “those who believed together with us.”

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 .