Paragraph 12:23–26

12:23

But Jesus replied: Jesus’ answer was in response to Andrew and Philip and also to the Greeks. The Greek has a plural pronoun “them” that the Berean Standard Bible leaves implied. If you translate the pronoun, it is good to translate it as a general pronoun referring to all these people, not the two disciples alone.

The hour has come: The phrase The hour refers to the time Jesus had been waiting for. That was the time he would suffer, die, and rise again. This time had now come. It would not, however, take place in the next 60 minutes. So it may be necessary to refer to “time” instead of hour. For example:

The time has come (NET Bible Bible)
-or-
it is now the time

for the Son of Man to be glorified: The word for here introduces which hour/time Jesus was talking about. He was referring to the time when he would receive glory from God. This would be the time when he would suffer, die, rise from the dead, and return to heaven. The verb be glorified is passive and there are at least two ways to translate it:

• Use a passive verb. For example:

The time has come for the Son of Man to be given his glory. (Contemporary English Version)

• Use an active verb. For example:

The hour has now come for the Son of Man to receive great glory. (Good News Translation)
-or-
Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. (New Living Translation (2004))

Use the verb form that is most natural in your language in this context.

the Son of Man: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the Son of Man is more literally “the Son of the human/person.” Jesus used this title to imply two things:

(a) He was a true human being, and he represented all people.

(b) He came from God and had authority from God.

Try to use an expression that implies both meanings. For example:

the True Man from God/Heaven

See how you translated this in 1:51 and 3:13b. In some languages it may be necessary to use a first person pronoun to indicate that Jesus referred to himself. For example:

for ⌊me,⌋ the Son of Man,

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