13:20a
Truly, truly, I tell you: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translated as Truly, truly, I tell you is more literally “Truly, truly, I say to you.” It introduces an important statement and means “pay attention to what I am will now say.” See how you translated this clause in 13:16b.
whoever receives the one I send receives Me: This clause indicates that accepting Jesus’ messenger is the same as accepting Jesus. For example:
whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me (New International Version)
-or-
whoever receives anyone I send receives me also (Good News Translation)
-or-
anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me (New Living Translation (2004))
whoever: This pronoun is indefinite and begins a general principle. There are many ways different languages express indefinite subjects that begin a general principle. For example:
the person who
-or-
anyone
-or-
if someone
-or-
they that
receives: This verb here means “accepts” or “welcomes.” For example:
whoever welcomes the one I send, welcomes me (New Jerusalem Bible)
the one I send: This phrase means “my messenger” or “my representative” or “the people who tell my word.” Here is another way to translate this phrase:
any messenger of mine (Revised English Bible)
13:20b
whoever receives Me receives the One who sent Me: This clause indicates that receiving or accepting Jesus is the same as accepting God the Father, who sent him. A person who welcomes Jesus and his message, believing in him, believes in God the Father. In some languages it may be necessary to make it explicit that the One who sent Me refers to God the Father. See 8:26b and 9:4a. For example:
and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
© 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.