18:22a

I tell you, not just seven times: This clause is Jesus’ reply to Peter’s question. Jesus understood why Peter asked his question. He knew that Peter probably expected the answer that seven was a good limit. So Jesus started by denying what Peter expected him to say.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

I say to you, not just seven times (God’s Word)
-or-
Not just seven times (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
No, not seven times (New Living Translation (2004))

Some words are implied but not repeated here. The complete clause would be:

I tell you, ⌊you must forgive him⌋ not ⌊just⌋ seven times.
-or-
I tell you, you must forgive him more than seven times. (New Century Version)

18:22b

but: There is a contrast here. The contrast is between “not seven times,” and “seventy times seven.” Languages have different ways to indicate this negative-positive type of contrast. Some of the ways are:

• With the conjunction but.

• With a conjunction other than but. This is a common way in English to show this type of contrast. For example:

rather
-or-
Instead

• With no conjunction. For example:

Not seven times. Seventy times seven.

seventy-seven times: There are two ways to interpret the Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as seventy-seven times:

(1) It is the number 77. For example:

seventy-seven times (New Revised Standard Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, NET Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version)

(2) It means 70 x 7. This would be 490 times. For example:

seventy times seven (Revised Standard Version)

(Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, King James Version, New Living Translation (2004), Good News Translation, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, God’s Word)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). This same Greek phrase occurs in the ancient Greek translation of Genesis 4:24. There, the number in the original Hebrew is clearly the number 77.

It is also recommended that you put one interpretation in the text and the other interpretation in a footnote. Here is a sample footnote:

Or seventy times seven (490). Either way, Jesus meant a huge number of times to forgive.

Some words are implied but not repeated here. The complete clause would be:

⌊you should forgive him⌋ seventy-seven times

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