18:24a
Seeing the man’s sadness, Jesus said: There is a textual issue in this verse:
(1) Some Greek manuscripts have the phrase “becoming sad.” For example:
Jesus saw that he was sad and said (Good News Translation)
(Berean Standard Bible, Good News Translation, English Standard Version, King James Version, Contemporary English Version, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, NET Bible, New Living Translation (2004), Revised English Bible)
(2) Some Greek manuscripts do not have this phrase. For example:
Jesus looking at him said (Revised Standard Version)
(Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, New Century Version, New Living Translation (1996), God’s Word)
It is recommended you follow option (1) because more Greek manuscripts include these words. However, if the major language version in your area follows the other option, you may want to follow it. Whichever option you follow, you may want to mention the other option in a footnote.
Jesus said: The text does not specify to whom Jesus spoke. It is clear from the context that his disciples were there, and probably others were also listening. In some languages it may be necessary to indicate to whom Jesus was speaking. For example:
said to those around him
-or-
said to the people who were there
-or-
said to his disciples
18:24b
How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!: This is an exclamation. It means, “It is very difficult for rich people to enter the kingdom of God.”
The phrase to enter the kingdom of God refers to becoming one of the people whom God rules and cares for as his king. A person enters the kingdom of God by submitting to God as his king. Jesus implied that it is very hard for a rich person to submit to God in that way.
Some other ways to translate this are:
Wealthy people will hardly be able to become citizens in God’s reign/chieftaincy.
-or-
Rich people have great difficulty in submitting to God as their king.
-or-
It is very difficult for people who own many things to join those whom God rules.
The word enter and the phrase kingdom of God also occur in 18:17. The contexts are similar but different, and the Notes have given different examples here. See the note on 18:17b–c. Consider how to translate the meaning of 18:17 and 18:24 in a similar way that fits both contexts. For more information, see kingdom of God, Context 1, in the Glossary.
kingdom of God: The phrase kingdom of God refers to God’s activity of ruling and caring for his people as their king. It does not refer to a land or country that he rules over. It refers to the relationship that he has with his people. He leads, protects, and cares for them. They obey, trust, and submit to him as their king.
Some ways to translate this are:
• As a noun. For example:
God’s rule/reign
-or-
God’s kingship
-or-
God’s chieftaincy
-or-
God’s government
• As a verbal expression:
God rules his people
-or-
God reigns over his people
See also kingdom of God in the Glossary.
© 2009, 2010, 2013 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.