Paragraph 18:22–24
One of the guards slapped Jesus because he thought that Jesus did not show respect for the high priest.
18:22a
When Jesus had said this: This refers to what Jesus said in 18:20–21.
one of the officers: This refers to one of the guards who had arrested Jesus. See the note and how you translated officers in 18:3b. For example:
one of the Temple guards (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
one of the police (New Revised Standard Version)
standing nearby: This phrase indicates that this guard was standing near Jesus. Here is another way to translate this phrase:
standing near Jesus (God’s Word)
slapped Him in the face: This phrase indicates that this guard struck (hit) or slapped (hit with an open hand) Jesus on his face. Translate this phrase in a way that is natural in your language. For example:
slapped his face (God’s Word)
-or-
slapped Jesus across the face (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
hit him in the face
18:22b
Is this how You answer the high priest?: This is a rhetorical question. It implies the answer “no.” This is a rebuke. The guard rebuked Jesus for the way Jesus had talked to the high priest. The Jewish law forbade speaking with no respect to the rulers (see Exodus 22:28). The guard thought that Jesus was rude and did not show respect. There are at least two ways to translate this rhetorical question:
• Use a rhetorical question. For example:
How dare you speak that way to the high priest?
• Use a statement. For example:
That’s no way to talk to the high priest! (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
That is not the right/proper way to talk to the high priest.
Use whichever form is most natural to express rebuke in your language.
In some languages it may be natural to make it explicit that the guard thought that Jesus’ answer was rude or did not show respect. For example:
Is that a ⌊respectful⌋ way to answer the high priest?
-or-
You should not answer the high priest in that ⌊rude⌋ way!
© 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.