8:16a

So they began to discuss with one another: The pronoun they here refers to Jesus’ disciples. The disciples talked with one another about the meaning of what Jesus had just said.

8:16b

the fact that they had no bread: In this part of the verse, the disciples tried to explain to themselves why Jesus said the words in 8:15. They thought he was talking about real yeast and real bread. In some languages it may be necessary to make this more explicit. For example:

that he had said that because they had no bread.

General Comment on 8:16a–b

In the Greek the disciples’ words are in indirect speech. In some languages it may be more natural to translate this verse using direct speech. For example:

They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because have no bread.” (New International Version)
-or-
The disciples began to say to each other, ‘Jesus is saying that because we do not have any bread.’ (Easy English Bible)

Paragraph 8:17–21

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