4:39a
He stood over her: There are at least two ways to interpret the clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He stood over her:
(1) It means that Jesus leaned or bent over her. For example:
He bent over her (God’s Word)
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, NET Bible, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, King James Version, God’s Word, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
(2) It means that Jesus stood by her side. For example:
stood at her bedside (Good News Translation)
(Good News Translation, New Living Translation (2004), New Century Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1).
This clause implies that Jesus walked over to the woman who was lying down.
rebuked the fever: The verb rebuked means “spoke forcefully to.” In this context, it means that Jesus commanded the fever to leave the woman. For example:
ordered the fever to leave (God’s Word)
In some languages, a person cannot speak to a sickness. If that is true in your language, you should find another way to translate rebuked the fever. For example:
Jesus caused the fever to leave her.
-or-
Jesus caused the fever to cool/diminish.
-or-
Jesus said that the sickness must end.
-or-
Jesus spoke words to heal her.
4:39b
and it left her: The phrase and it left her means “the fever left her.” This means that the woman’s temperature went back to normal again. Some other ways to translate this are:
The fever left her (Good News Translation)
-or-
and immediately her temperature returned to normal (New Living Translation (1996))
-or-
she was healed
-or-
she became healthy
4:39c
And she got up at once: The phrase she got up at once means that the woman was able to get out of bed immediately. She was not weak, as a person recovering from a fever usually is. For example:
Right then she was able to get up (Contemporary English Version)
and began to serve them: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as began to serve them is literally “she was serving them.” It means that as soon as the woman got up, she started to prepare a meal for Jesus and his disciples. For example:
She got up immediately and prepared a meal for them. (God’s Word)
This shows that as soon as Jesus had healed Simon’s mother-in-law, she was strong enough to serve the food.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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