21:8a
The other disciples came ashore in the boat: The rest of the disciples also went toward Jesus on the shore. But unlike Peter, they stayed in the boat. In some languages it is more natural to tell how they moved the boat. For example:
the other disciples ⌊rowed⌋ the boat to the shore
The other disciples: This phrase refers to the six disciples who went fishing with Peter.
They dragged in the net full of fish: This phrase implies that the net was too heavy for the disciples to lift into the boat. As a result, they left it in the water and pulled it behind the boat. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:
and they pulled the net with its full load of fish to the shore
-or-
pulling the net with all the fish
21:8b
for they were not far from land: The phrase not far in this context means “near.” In some languages it may be natural to translate this with a positive expression. For example:
because they were quite close to shore
for: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as for here means “because” and introduces a reason. It is the reason why the disciples were able to pull the net behind the boat to the shore. In some languages it may be natural to leave it untranslated, perhaps starting a new sentence. For example:
They were not very far from land. (Good News Translation)
only about a hundred yards: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as only about a hundred yards is more literally “but about two hundred (200) cubits away.” The idea is that the shore was not far, but only 200 cubits away. A cubit was how Jews measured length and was the length from the elbow to the end of the fingers. In some languages it is more natural to say “one hundred meters” or to use a different unit of measure. For example:
They were not very far from the shore, just about one hundred meters. (Uma Back Translation)
-or-
They were close to the shore. The distance was about 300 feet away.
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