7:15a
The Berean Standard Bible leaves implicit a Greek word in this clause that is usually translated as “therefore.” Most other English translations also leave the word implicit, although a few translations use “then” or “therefore” to translate it. Translate this Greek word in a way that is natural in your language.
The Jews: This phrase refers to the Jewish leaders here. See how you translated this term in 7:1, 7:11 and 7:13. Make sure it is clear that you are referring to the same people in those verses. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:
The Jewish authorities (Good News Translation)
-or-
the Jewish leaders (NET Bible Bible)
-or-
The leaders (Contemporary English Version)
were amazed: This expression is more literally “were astonished” in the Greek text. The expression indicates that the Jewish leaders were amazed at Jesus’ teaching. They did not expect that he would know so much and be able to teach so well. Here are other ways to translate this expression:
were amazed (New International Version)
-or-
were greatly surprised (Good News Translation)
asked: The verb asked here introduces a rhetorical question. In some languages it may be more natural to translate it in one of these ways:
and asked each other
7:15b
How did this man attain such learning without having studied?: This is a rhetorical question. The Jewish leaders used it as an expression of surprise. The Jewish leaders were surprised at Jesus’ excellent understanding of their religion.
There are at least three ways to translate this rhetorical question:
• Use a rhetorical question. For example:
How is it that this untrained man has such learning? (Revised English Bible)
• Use a statement. For example:
This man certainly knows a lot about ⌊the Law/Torah⌋ for someone who has never studied it!
• Use both a question and a statement. For example:
How does this man know so much? He has never been taught! (Contemporary English Version)
Translate this expression of surprise in a way that is natural in your language.
In some languages it may be natural to reverse the order of the clauses in this sentence. For example:
The rabbis have never taught this man ⌊the Law/Scriptures⌋ ! Yet he knows so much about it!
How did this man attain such learning: The phrase such learning here means “such great learning.” It refers to the fact that Jesus’ teaching showed that he understood well the Jewish Law and the Hebrew Scriptures. The people speaking wondered how he got this understanding. In some languages it may be necessary to make explicit what Jesus had learned (the Jewish Law). For example:
How did this man learn so much ⌊about our (incl.) Law⌋ ?
In some languages it may be natural to translate the noun learning as a verb. For example:
How does this man know so much…? (Good News Translation)
without having studied: This clause indicates why the Jewish leaders were surprised. They were surprised at Jesus’ learning because he had not been taught the Law by the rabbis. He had not studied to be a professional teacher of the Torah. The clause does not mean that Jesus had not learned anything, like how to read.
© 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.