22:23a–b

Then: In Greek this verse begins with the common conjunction that is often translated as “and.” It introduces the reaction of the apostles when Jesus said that one of them would betray him (22:21). The Berean Standard Bible and some other English versions translate this word as Then. In some languages it may be natural to begin it with an introductory phrase or clause. For example:

When his disciples heard that

Begin the verse in a natural way in your language.

they began to question among themselves which of them was going to do this: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as they began to question indicates that the apostles started discussing which of them would betray Jesus.

The Greek phrase which of them was going to do this is emphatic. In this context it implies that betraying Jesus was a terrible action. It was hard for them to imagine that one of them would do that. Try to express this feeling in a natural way in your language. Some ways to translate it in English are:

they began to discuss with each other who could do such a thing (God’s Word)
-or-
they began to question one another as to which of them it could possibly be who would do this (NET Bible)

In some languages it may be more natural to translate this verse as a direct quote. For example:

They started to ask one another, “Which of us could be the one who will do this?”

question: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as question means “to talk with,” “to speak with,” or “to converse” about something.

© 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.