SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 4:20

4:20

And at once: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as And at once introduces an important event in the story. Simon and Andrew obeyed Jesus without delay.

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

Immediately (English Standard Version)
-or-
Right away
-or-
Right then (Contemporary English Version)

they left their nets: The clause they left their nets implies that Simon and Andrew stopped their work as fishermen. They abandoned their fishing work and became Jesus’ disciples. You may want to include some implied information to make this clear. For example:

they left/abandoned their nets ⌊and their fishing work

and followed Him: As mentioned in 4:19a, the words followed Him imply that Simon and Andrew became Jesus’ disciples. They accepted Jesus’ request to follow him and become his disciples. You may want to make this information explicit. For example:

and followed him ⌊and became his disciples

-or-

and went with him ⌊to become his disciples

© 2023 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.

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