13:4a

Or: The word Or here introduces another example of people who had recently died in a tragic way. In this second example, however, the deaths were accidental, not deliberate killings. Other ways to introduce this example are:

What about… (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Consider also…

those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them: Jesus was referring here to an event that his listeners already knew about. This event had happened in Jerusalem not long before that. In some languages it may be helpful to make explicit that Jesus’ listeners had already heard about it. For example:

⌊you also heard/know about⌋ the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them

the tower of Siloam: Siloam was the name of a pool in Jerusalem and also of the neighborhood around this pool. The tower in Siloam was in this neighborhood. It was probably a high fortified area or building that was part of the city wall. It was probably made of stone and was very heavy. Some other ways to translate it are:

high building in Siloam
-or-
tall ⌊stone⌋ house/wall in Siloam

13:4b

Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem?: This is a rhetorical question. It is parallel to the question in 13:2, so you can probably translate it in a similar way.

Jesus used this question to challenge the crowd’s belief about why the tower fell on those people. The crowd thought that the people must be guilty of worse sins than the other residents of Jerusalem and that was the reason the tower fell on them. Some other ways to translate the question are:

• As a rhetorical question:

Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
Do you think they were more sinful than all the others who live in Jerusalem? (New Century Version)
-or-
Do you suppose this proves that they were worse than all the other people living in Jerusalem? (Good News Translation)

• As a statement:

You may think/assume that they were more guilty ⌊of sin⌋ than all the other ⌊people⌋ living in Jerusalem.
-or-
You should not think/assume that ⌊this happened to them because⌋ they were guilty of more ⌊sin⌋ than all the other Jerusalem residents.

Translate this question in a way that is most natural in your language.

more sinful: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as more sinful is literally “debtors.” It is a figure of speech that pictures sin as a debt that must be paid to God. In this context it is a synonym of “sinners” in 13:2a. Other ways to translate the phrase more sinful here are:

worse offenders (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
worse sinners (New King James Version)
-or-
had sinned more
-or-
were more sinful (God’s Word)

all the others living in Jerusalem: The Berean Standard Bible has supplied the word others where the Greek text says “people” in order to clarify that the eighteen people who were killed by the tower also lived in Jerusalem. Another way to translate this is:

the rest of the people who lived in Jerusalem

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