The phrase crowds of people is a reference primarily to the great number of people. Therefore in many languages “many people” or “very, very many people” might be used.

A term for towns must distinguish smaller communities from the large city of Jerusalem. In some contexts, therefore, a word for town will be more or less equivalent to “village.” It is the relative size, not the specific number of people, which is significant in this type of context.

The phrase bringing their sick will probably need to be translated in many languages as “carrying their sick.” The manner of bringing those with evil spirits may need to be contrasted as “and leading those who had evil spirits in them.”

In many languages evil spirits do not live in people but “control them” or “command them.” Those who had evil spirits in them literally translates “those who were being troubled by unclean spirits.” But in biblical terminology “evil spirits” and “unclean spirits” are essentially synonymous. There are, however, serious difficulties encountered in employing an adjective such as “unclean,” for this can turn out to be simply “dirty.” Quite naturally the emphasis in the Bible is on the fact that these spirits caused people to become unclean in a religious sense, that is, they defiled them, so that they could not worship God.

The passive expression they were all healed may be transformed into an active as “they all got well” or “none was any longer sick.”

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 .