7:12a
This verse begins with a Greek conjunction that is often translated as “and” (as in the New Revised Standard Version). This conjunction connects the events in 7:11 and 7:12. Both events happened at the same time. In some languages it may be necessary to translate this conjunction explicitly.
Many in the crowds were whispering about Him: This clause indicates that people were grumbling a lot about Jesus. Many of them were not happy about what he said and did. They argued about who he was. Here are other ways to translate this clause:
There was much whispering about him in the crowd. (Good News Translation)
-or-
There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. (NET Bible Bible)
in the crowds: The phrase the crowds refers to the large numbers of people gathered at the feast. In some languages it is more natural to say “among the many people.”
were whispering about Him: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as whispering means “grumbling” or “disagreement.” It refers particularly to low or quiet grumbling, implying that they were unhappy.
7:12b-c
Some said, “He is a good man.” But others replied, “No, He deceives the people.”: The word But in this context indicates the first half of a contrast. The contrast is between what some were saying and what others were saying. In some languages it may be natural to leave it untranslated. For example:
Other people said, “No, He deceives the people.”
Another way to show the contrast is by using a word like “while” or “but” after the first clause. For example:
Some were saying, “Jesus is a good man,” while others were saying, “He is lying to everyone.” (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Some argued, “He’s a good man,” but others said, “He’s nothing but a fraud who deceives the people.” (New Living Translation (2004))
In some languages it is more natural to use indirect quotations here. For example:
Some of them said/thought that Jesus was a good person and others said/thought that he was deceiving the ordinary people.
7:12b
He is a good man: The clause He is a good man indicates that these people approved of Jesus. The Greek word meaning good refers to someone who is morally good and righteous, and has excellent character.
7:12c
But others replied, “No, He deceives the people.”: The clause others replied indicates that there was another group of people who disagreed with the first.
No: This word begins the other people’s response to the ones who said that Jesus was a good man. They disagreed and argued with the first group. In some languages it may be helpful to make this explicit:
No, ⌊he is not a good man⌋ .
-or-
No, he isn’t. (God’s Word)
He deceives the people: This clause wrongly accuses Jesus of pretending to be something he was not. They thought that he was encouraging people to believe a lie, that he was the Messiah. However, that was really the truth.
Here are other ways to translate this clause:
he is leading the people the wrong way
-or-
He is lying to everyone. (Contemporary English Version)
the people: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the people here refers in general to the ordinary Jewish people. The speakers probably did not think of themselves as belonging to the crowd. They seemed to think that they were wiser than the crowd, perhaps because they went to school longer than ordinary people.
Here are some ways that you may be able to imply this attitude:
the common people (NET Bible Bible)
-or-
the general public
© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.