20:9a–b

For they still did not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead: The two disciples did not understand that their scriptures, our Old Testament, taught that the Messiah would rise from the dead. This is a parenthetical statement. It is not part of the main story but a comment by the author. Some English translations therefore place this sentence in parentheses. For example:

(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) (New International Version)

20:9a

For: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For here means “because” and introduces a parenthetical statement. In some languages it may be natural to leave it untranslated, as the New International Version has done. Introduce the following parenthetical information in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

because

they still did not understand from the Scripture: This parenthetical statement explains why the disciple only believed after he saw the empty tomb and the grave cloths. It was because the disciples did not realize that their scriptures said that the Messiah must rise from the dead. At that time they did not know that this was what the Scriptures meant. They knew what the Scriptures said, but they did not understand its full meaning.

they still did not understand: There are two ways to interpret the expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as they still did not understand :

(1) It means that the disciples still did not understand. They did not understand until some future time. For example:

At that time Peter and the other disciple did not know (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
They still did not understand the scripture (Good News Translation)

(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version. Contemporary English Version, God’s Word, New Century Version, King James Version, New American Standard Bible, NET Bible, Good News Translation)

(2) It means that the disciples did not understand until this point. At this time they began to understand. For example:

for until then they still hadn’t understood (New Living Translation (2004))

(New Living Translation (2004), Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible)

If you must choose between the interpretations, it is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). It is followed by most important English translations and also has the support of commentaries. In some languages it may be natural to translate it as a positive statement. For example:

for only later did they understand the scripture

they: This pronoun here refers to two men, Peter and John. In some languages it may be natural to make this explicit. For example:

Peter and the other disciple (Contemporary English Version)

still: The word still means “up to that time.” It implies that later the situation changed and the disciples did understand.

did not understand: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as understand is more literally “know.” Here in this context it refers to knowing the meaning of something. The disciples knew what the Scriptures said, but they did not realize that it was speaking about Jesus’ resurrection.

the Scripture: This phrase here probably refers to the Jewish word of God as a whole, which is our Old Testament. The author may have been thinking of passages such as Isaiah 53:10–11, Psalm 16:9–11, and Hosea 6:2. See how you translated this word in 2:22 and 10:35. Here are some ways to translate this word:

what is written in God’s Word
-or-
what God’s book says
-or-
what the prophets wrote long ago

20:9b

that Jesus had to rise from the dead: This clause indicates what the disciples did not understand from scripture. They did not understand that it was necessary for Jesus to rise from the dead. It was necessary because God had decided and declared that it would happen. It was God’s will and purpose. See how you translated the similar idea, that Jesus must die on the cross, in 3:14. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

when it said that Jesus had to come back to life (God’s Word)
-or-
which showed that he must rise from the dead (Revised English Bible)
-or-
that he was certainly/surely going to live again

rise from the dead: This phrase means “become alive again after dying.” See how you translated this phrase in 2:22, Mark 9:9, and Luke 2:46. For example:

rise from death (Good News Translation)
-or-
rise to life (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
return to life

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