“I heard from many people concerning this man” appears in the Good News Translation as many people have told me about this man. The New English Bible transforms the idea of “many” into “often”: “I have often heard about this man,” but the Greek would seem to lend itself more naturally to the interpretation given in the Good News Translation. To your people (An American Translation*; see New English Bible “to thy people”) appears in New American Bible and Phillips as “to your holy people,” and in Jerusalem Bible “to your saints” (see Moffatt “to thy saints”), with an extensive note in Jerusalem Bible explaining the meaning of the term. The phrase is literally “the holy ones,” and is the common Pauline term for Christians. In Acts it appears only in this chapter (vv. 13, 32, 41) and in 26.10. The use of this term goes back to the Old Testament concept of the people of Israel as belonging to God in a unique sense. Since, for a number of reasons, “saints” or “holy ones” is misleading in contemporary English, the Good News Translation, as well as most modern translations, has adopted throughout either your people or God’s people.

All the terrible things he has done to your people may be rendered as “how much he has caused your people to suffer.”

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 .