14:47a

And: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as And introduces what happened after the crowd arrested Jesus. What happened next was that someone opposed the men who were arresting Jesus. Introduce this next event in a natural way in your language.

one of the bystanders: The phrase one of the bystanders refers to someone who was standing near Jesus when the crowd arrested him. John 18:10 mentions that this was Peter. You may wish to mention this in a footnote.

bystanders: In some languages, it may be not be natural to refer to this person in a way that refers to standing. If this is true for your language, you could say:

Then one of those who was there near Jesus

drew his sword: In this context the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as drew means “to pull.” The person pulled his sword out of the place where he normally kept it covered. This place was probably a sheath. If your language has a word for removing a knife or sword from its covering, you should use it here.

sword: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as sword here was also used in 14:43c. You can translate it in the same way here.

14:47b

struck the servant of the high priest: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as struck is literally “hit” or “strike.” In this context it implies that the person used his sword to hit the servant and cut him.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

used his sword to strike/attack/hit the high priest’s servant
-or-
struck the servant of the high priest with his sword

the servant of the high priest: The phrase the servant of the high priest probably implies that this was the high priest’s only servant who was in the crowd that night. It does not mean that this was the high priest’s only servant.

Here is another way to translate this:

the servant who belonged to the high priest

servant: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as servant literally means “slave.” This Greek word refers to someone who was owned by another person. He worked for his owner/master without receiving pay. He had no rights of his own (or very few rights).

In some cultures, slaves may not be known. In other cultures, the word for “slave” may not be appropriate in this context.

If that is true in your language, here are some other ways to translate this:

a person who belongs to someone else
-or-
a person whom someone else owns
-or-
a person who serves someone
-or-
a lowly worker

The Berean Standard Bible translates this same word as “slave” in 10:44.

high priest: The high priest was the leader of all the Jewish priests. All Jewish priests offered sacrifices on behalf of the people. The high priest offered certain special sacrifices that no other priest could offer. In a special way, he represented the Jewish people to God.

Here are some other ways to translate high priest:

the chief/leader of all the priests
-or-
the main/principal Priest
-or-
the highest/leading priest

See how you translated this term in 2:26a.

14:47c

cutting off his ear: The phrase cutting off his ear indicates the result of what happened in 14:47b. When the man hit the servant with his sword, it cut off his ear. Express that in a natural way in your language. For example:

and cut/sliced/slashed off his ear.

his ear: In some languages it may be necessary to specify “right” ear or “left” ear. If this is true in your language, then you may indicate that it was the right ear. (We know this from what Luke and John wrote about this event in Luke 22:50 and John 18:10.)

General Comment on 14:47a–c

In some languages it may be necessary to reorder the phrases in 14:47a–c to make it sound natural. The New Living Translation, 1996 edition has one way to do this:

47aBut someone pulled out a sword 47band slashed 47c off an ear 47bof the high priest’s servant.

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