23:15a
Neither has Herod: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Neither has Herod is more literally “but neither/even Herod.” This phrase is emphatic. It provides further support for Pilate’s statement in 23:14 that he did not discover any basis for the charges against Jesus. It indicates that like Pilate, Herod did not find any basis for the charges. Some other ways to translate it are:
Herod also ⌊found⌋ nothing
-or-
Herod came to the same conclusion (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
And even Herod, the same also
In some languages it may be necessary to make the statement more explicit. For example:
And Herod also could not find any wrong/crime that he had done
-or-
Herod didn’t find him guilty either (Contemporary English Version)
23:15b
for he sent Him back to us:
This statement explains how Pilate knew that Herod also had not found Jesus guilty of any crime. When Herod returned Jesus to Pilate, he probably implied that Jesus was innocent. Otherwise, Herod would have caused him to be punished. Some other ways to translate this explanation are:
So he sent this man back to us. (God’s Word)
-or-
That is why he returned him to us.
us: The word us refers here to Pilate and the Jewish leaders who were accusing Jesus.
23:15c
As you can see: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as As you can see is more literally “and look.” This same phrase occurred in 23:14c. It emphasizes the following statement. Here it emphasizes that Pilate’s next statement is obviously true: Jesus obviously did not deserve to be punished by death. Some other ways to emphasize the statement are:
Clearly (Revised English Bible)
-or-
Look (NET Bible)
-or-
It is obvious/evident that…
Translate this emphasis in a natural way in your language.
He has done nothing deserving of death: Pilate indicated here that Jesus did not deserve to be executed. He did not do any crime that Roman law would punish with death. Pilate had no reason to execute Jesus. Some other ways to translate this are:
…he has done nothing to deserve the death penalty. (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
This man doesn’t deserve to be put to death! (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
This person has not done anything for which it is appropriate to condemn him to death.
© 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.