On the phrase men of Israel (literally “men, Jerusalemites”) see 1.16. The exclamation Help! may be rendered as “come and help us” or even, as in some instances, “come and join us against this man.” “The people” is a term used in the Septuagint to refer to the people of Israel, and so the Good News Translation has brought this out (Dios Habla Hoy “against our nation”; Barclay “God’s people”; and Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible “our people”).

As in verse 24, “the law” is used with a reference to the Law of Moses. The significance of the word “Greeks” (so most translations) is that these people are non-Jews, that is, Gentiles (of the major translations, only the Good News Translation appears to translate this word by Gentiles). For a Gentile to enter into the temple proper was an offense punishable by death. Inscriptions were placed over the entranceway warning the Gentiles that they took their lives in their own hands if they went beyond that point.

It is not always easy to speak of teaching everyone against the people of Israel. In fact, the concept of “teaching against” may need to be expressed as “teaching everyone by condemning” or “teaching everyone, The people of Israel, the Law of Moses, and this temple have no value.”

Though in many languages it is easy enough to express the concept of defiled this holy place, in some languages the only equivalent is a relatively roundabout expression—for example, “caused harm to this holy place,” “caused this holy place not to be holy,” or “caused the holiness of this place to be damaged.”

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 .