11:52a

and not only for the nation: This phrase indicates that Jesus’ death was not for the benefit of the Jewish nation alone. In some languages it may be natural to begin a new sentence here, supplying a verb. For example:

Jesus would not die only for the Jewish nation

the nation: This phrase refers again to the Jewish nation. If you made that explicit in 11:51c, it may be natural to indicate this here by saying the following:

that nation

11:52b

but: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as but connects the negative statement in 11:52a to the positive statement here in 11:52b. Here the negative statement (“not for the nation only”) is completed by the positive statement (“to gather into one the dispersed children of God”). The words “not…only” in 11:52a indicate that there is an additional purpose for Jesus’ death. John tells the additional purpose here in 11:52b. Translate the connection between the two clauses in a way that is natural in your language. Here are some possibilities:

• Do not use a connector. For example:

Yet Jesus would not die just for the Jewish nation. He would die to bring together all of God’s scattered people. (Contemporary English Version)

• Follow the Berean Standard Bible and use but. For example:

and not for the Jewish nation only, but to gather together into one the children of God who are scattered (NET Bible Bible)

• Reverse the clauses in 11:52a–b and translate the positive statement first. For example:

52b And Jesus would die to gather into one ⌊all⌋ the dispersed children of God. 52a He would not die just for the benefit of the Jewish nation.
-or-

52b Jesus was about to die to unite the scattered people of God. 52a His death would benefit them ⌊all⌋ , not the Jewish nation alone.

• Find another way to introduce an additional reason for the Jews to hate Jesus. For example:

Jesus would die for their nation and for God’s scattered children to bring them all together and make them one. (New Century Version)

The additional reason in 11:52b tells an additional purpose for Jesus’ death. This second purpose is the one that is emphasized. You may want to emphasize this second purpose in your translation. For example:

and even though it was great for Jesus to die for the Jewish nation, it was even greater that he would die to gather all of God’s scattered children into one body.

the scattered children of God: This phrase refers to people who trust in God around the world, from every nation and people group. Here is another way to translate this phrase:

God’s scattered people (Contemporary English Version)

scattered: This word means “divided up and spread around.” God’s people were not living in Israel alone but in many countries around the world. It may be natural to make this explicit. For example:

all God’s children who live in many countries/places

to gather them together into one: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as gather them together into one means “bring together, make one, unite.” For example:

to bring together into one body all the scattered people of God (Good News Translation)
-or-
and for God’s scattered children to bring them all together and make them one (New Century Version)

© 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.