7:51

Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?: This is a rhetorical question. It expects the answer “no” and emphasizes the negative statement. Nicodemus emphasized that the law did not allow someone to decide that a person was guilty without letting him defend himself.

There are at least two ways of translating this emphasis of a negative statement:

• Use a rhetorical question. For example:

Does the law allow us to find a man guilty before we hear him defend himself ⌊in court⌋ ?
-or-
Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing? (New International Version)

• Use a statement. For example:

Our laws do not let us condemn people before we hear what they say about their actions.
-or-
According to our Law we cannot condemn people without hearing them and finding out what they have done. (Good News Translation)

Translate this rhetorical question in the way that is most natural in your language.

our law: The phrase our law refers to the law of Moses. The pronoun our is inclusive as all those present were Jews.

convict: The verb convict here means to issue a negative judgment, meaning to decide that someone is guilty. (For examples, see above.)

hearing from him to determine what he has done: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as hearing from him to determine what he has done is more literally “hear from him and learn what he does.” The pronouns him and he refer to the accused people (those whom others accused of doing something wrong).

determine what he has done: This clause means to learn what the accused people did, and why. When talking about legal matters, there may be special phrases that are suitable. It may be natural to make it clearer that the accused people are the ones speaking. For example:

let them explain their deeds/actions

General Comment on 7:51

The Greek text uses singular forms for the object of the verb “judge” and the following pronouns. In some languages it may be natural to follow the Greek. For example:

Our law does not judge a man without hearing him and knowing what he has done. (New Century Version)

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