Section 8:18–22

The cost of following Jesus

In this section two people told Jesus they wanted to follow him. He replied with two sayings that indicate that being his disciple is difficult.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

To follow Jesus is difficult/hard
-or-
Two people who wanted to follow Jesus

Paragraph 8:18–20

8:18a

When: The story in this section probably did not happen on the same day as the story in the previous section.

Here are some other ways to begin this section:

One day
-or-
On another day
-or-
Another time

a large crowd: There is a textual issue here:

(1) Some Greek manuscripts have a crowd. For example:

When Jesus saw the crowd around him (New International Version)

(New International Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, English Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004), God’s Word, Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, New Century Version)

(2) Other Greek manuscripts have large crowds. For example:

Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him (Revised Standard Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, NET Bible, King James Version, New Living Translation (1996), Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

It is recommended to follow option (1) and the majority of English versions.

Here is another way to translate this:

many people

8:18b

He gave orders: This clause means “he commanded.” It is implied that Jesus gave orders to his disciples.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

he ordered his disciples (Good News Translation)
-or-
he told his followers (New Century Version)
-or-
he instructed his disciples (New Living Translation (2004))

to cross to the other side of the sea: This clause means that Jesus ordered his disciples to go over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

The verb cross means “go across” a river or lake. The meaning of to the other side may be included in the meaning of the verb in your language. For example:

cross the lake ⌊Galilee⌋

The disciples probably made a boat ready, but they did not cross the lake with Jesus until 8:23. Your translation should not indicate or imply that they crossed the lake in this verse.

General Comment on 8:18b

Verse 8:18b has indirect speech. Many languages can translate this as indirect speech. But it may be more natural in some languages to translate as direct speech. For example:

he told his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.”

© 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.