24:27a–c

This verse summarizes what Jesus explained to the disciples about his statement in 24:26. He explained how the Scriptures show that the Messiah must suffer before entering his glory.

In some languages it may be helpful to reverse the order of clauses in this verse. See the General Comment on 24:27a–d at the end of 24:27d for translation suggestions.

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them: The phrase And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets tells how Jesus began to explain what the Scriptures said about him (the Christ), as summarized in 24:26. He began to explain this by using the writings of Moses. Then he continued by using the writings of the other prophets. In his explanation, Jesus showed how all these writings teach that the Christ must suffer before entering his glory. Some other ways to translate this phrase are:

he began with Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets to explain to them (God’s Word)
-or-
starting with what Moses and all the prophets had said about him, Jesus began to explain (New Century Version)

beginning with Moses and all the Prophets: In this context the phrase Moses and all the Prophets is probably a short way to refer to the Old Testament. It is also used in this way at 16:29. However, because of the phrase beginning with, some Bible scholars believe that Jesus began with the books of Moses and the Prophets and then went on to the other Scriptures, such as the Psalms. Either interpretation is acceptable.

Moses was also a prophet (Acts 3:21–22), so translate in a way that will imply that. For example:

Moses and all the ⌊other⌋ prophets

The books of the prophets were also mentioned in 18:31. See the notes at 18:31c. For more information, see prophet in the Glossary.

He explained: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as explained means to interpret so as to make the meaning clear.

24:27d

what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself: This clause indicates that Jesus chose Scriptures that spoke of the Christ. These were the Scriptures that he explained to the disciples. The verb was written is passive. In some languages it may be natural to use an active verb. For example:

what all the Scriptures said concerning himself

the Scriptures: The phrase the Scriptures is used in a special way in the New Testament. It refers to words that God directed someone to write. Such writings had authority because God guided a person to write them. In the New Testament the word Scriptures usually refers to something that was written in the Old Testament. Some other ways to translate the phrase the Scriptures are:

God’s written words
-or-
God’s book/word

about Himself: The word Himself refers to the Christ/Messiah, who was Jesus. However, Jesus did not yet tell the disciples that he was talking about himself as the Christ. He used forms that are normally used to refer to a different person because he was not yet ready to reveal his identity to them.

In some languages a literal translation may imply that at that time Jesus told the disciples that he was the Christ. If that is true in your language, you should translate in a different way. For example:

concerning the Christ/Messiah

General Comment on 24:27a–d

In some languages it may be natural to reorder this verse. Two ways to do this are:

27cJesus then began to explain to them 27dwhat all the Scriptures said about himself. 27aHe started with ⌊the books of⌋ Moses 27band continued on through the books of all the other Prophets.
-or-

27aThen Jesus began by explaining what Moses had written about him, 27cand he continued explaining 27bwhat all the other prophets in the rest of the Scriptures 27dhad written about him.

© 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.