12:57

And why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?: This is a rhetorical question. It functions as a rebuke. It indicates that the people themselves should think about what was happening and decide what was right. Jesus was rebuking them because they did not do that.

Some ways to translate this rebuke are:

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right? (New Living Translation (2004))

• As a statement. For example:

You should judge for yourselves what is right.

Translate this rebuke in a way that is natural in your language.

judge for yourselves what is right: In this context the phrase judge for yourselves what is right probably refers back to 12:56. It indicates that the people should think about what was happening and decide the right way to interpret it. It probably also implies that they should decide what was right to do about it. The parable in 12:58–59 indicates that they should make peace with God.

Translate this phrase in a way that implies this meaning. In some languages you may need to add a phrase to make the meaning clear. For example:

think ⌊about this⌋ and decide for yourselves what is right
-or-
decide for yourselves what is the right ⌊thing to do in these times⌋

judge for yourselves: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as judge often refers to deciding what is right in court cases. In this context the phrase judge for yourselves indicates that the people themselves should think carefully about what was right. They should not rely only on what someone else told them.

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