3:4

In this verse the author made a general statement that helps to explain what he said in 3:3. This statement in 3:4 is background information, so the Revised Standard Version uses parentheses. Use a natural way in your language to indicate this background information.

3:4a

And: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as And is translated as “For” in many English versions. It introduces a statement that reminds readers of a fact that they already know. Other ways to indicate that the readers know this information are:

Of course (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
We all know that…

every house is built by someone: The clause every house is built by someone is passive. It indicates that if a house exists, someone must have built it. This fact is a general principle that is true for any house. Some other ways to translate the clause are:

if there is a house, of course there is someone who built that house
-or-
Certainly every house ⌊that exists⌋ had someone to make/build it.

3:4b

but God is the builder of everything: This clause is a general principle that goes with the specific truth in 3:4a. Every house has a human builder (3:4a), but God is the actual builder who makes each building possible (3:4b). God is the one who caused everything to exist.

Translate this clause as a general truth, and connect it to 3:4a in a natural way in your language. Some other ways to translate it are:

and God is the one who has built all things (Good News Translation)
-or-
but the one who built everything is God (New Living Translation (2004))

© 2016, 2020 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.