There is no expressed noun subject to the verb was trying (most translations simply have “they were trying”), but the obvious reference is to the people who had gathered and had become a mob. Commander (originally a word referring to a leader of 1,000 men) was a technical term used to describe the Roman military officer in charge of a regiment (see 10.1); in other translations it occurs as “tribune” (Revised Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible), “colonel” (Phillips), and “officer commanding” (New English Bible, Barclay).

The expression a report was sent up to the commander may be rendered as “someone went and told the commander” or “some people sent a messenger to the commander.”

Roman troops is rendered elsewhere in the Good News Translation as regiment (10.1; 27.1). In the present context it has specific reference to the Roman garrison stationed in the tower of Antonia overlooking the temple area from the northwest corner (see Barclay “the company of soldiers on garrison duty”; Moffatt “the garrison”).

Although the verb rendered was rioting (see Jerusalem Bible) may mean that the people in the city were merely gathering together, almost all translations do as the Good News Translation has done (see King James Version, Phillips, Barclay “was in an uproar”). Luke has chosen to use a present tense of the verb rioting rather than the past tense, in order to make his description of the events more vivid.

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 .