4:21a
Believe Me, woman: In some languages it may be natural to reorder this clause. For example:
Believe me, woman (New International Version)
Believe Me: In this context this phrase means “accept that what I say is true.”
woman: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as woman is a polite form of address. It is the same word that Jesus used to address his mother in 2:4. Use the way of addressing a woman that is polite in your language. For example:
dear woman (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
sister
-or-
madam/ma’am
4:21b
a time is coming: This clause indicates that something new would soon begin. Here are other ways to translate this clause:
Things will soon change.
-or-
The day is happening/arriving.
-or-
the hour is coming (New Revised Standard Version)
when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem: This clause indicates that worship will not need to be in a specific place. People might still worship God in Jerusalem and on Mount Gerizim, but the place was not important. In some languages it may be necessary to make this clear. For example:
the time is coming when worshipping the Father will not be a matter of “on this hill-side” or “in Jerusalem” (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem (New Living Translation (2004))
you will worship: The verb worship means to show reverence and honor to God. Here the verb is in the second-person plural and refers to people in general. It may be more natural in your language to not use a second-person plural pronoun. For example:
people will…worship (Good News Translation)
the Father: This phrase refers to God, our heavenly Father. In some languages it is more natural to make this explicit. For example:
worship the/our Father God
© 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.