The pronominal reference of it may be difficult to represent readily in some receptor languages. One may use an expression such as “this accusation involved an argument about….” When, however, one cannot employ a noun such as argument, the appropriate equivalent may be “but since you are only arguing about words.”

The phrase your own law may be rendered as “the rules that apply only to you” or “the laws that only you people follow.”

You yourselves must settle it actually translates a future tense, but in Greek the future is sometimes used as the equivalent of an imperative. I will not be the judge of such things is said in such a way that “judge” is the emphatic element, literally “a judge of these things I am not willing to be.” The use of a term such as judge, referring to such issues as were presented by the Jews before Gallio, is rendered in some languages as “decide such matters” or “say what is right and what is wrong.”

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 .