9:38a
Lord: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Lord is also used in 9:36a, where it is translated as “sir.” The man now understood and believed that Jesus was the Messiah, so most English translations translate it here as Lord.
I believe: These words indicate that the man believed that Jesus was the Son of Man, the Messiah. In some languages it is more natural to supply an object, indicating what or whom he believed. For example:
I believe in you.
believe: This word has the same meaning as “believe in” in 9:35b and 9:36. It includes the idea of believing the facts about who Jesus was and what he did. But it also includes the idea of trusting Jesus instead of trusting oneself. Both ideas are very closely related. If someone believes the facts about Jesus, it should result in trusting him. See how you translated this idea in 1:12b and 9:35b. Here are other ways to translate this idea here:
put my faith in you (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
trust in you
-or-
believe in you
he said: The pronoun he refers to the man whom Jesus had healed. Indicate this in a way that is natural in this context. For example:
The man said (Contemporary English Version)
9:38b
he worshiped Jesus: In some languages it may be necessary to say explicitly whom the pronouns refer to. For example:
the man worshiped Jesus (New Century Version)
worshiped Jesus: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as worshiped means to bow down to the ground before someone. Bowing before someone in this way was a sign of great respect for that person. It does not have to mean that the man recognized and worshiped Jesus as God. Here is another way to translate this phrase:
knelt down before Jesus (Good News Translation)
© 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.