8:21a

But: This verse begins with a Greek conjunction that is often translated as “and.” Jesus’ reply was not what anyone expected, so the Berean Standard Bible and some other English versions (Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible) translate this conjunction as But. Other versions do not use a conjunction here (New International Version, Good News Translation). Connect this verse to 8:20 in a way that is natural in your language.

He replied: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He replied is literally “He replying said to them.” This probably indicates that his reply was given to the messenger or messengers in 8:20a and for all the people in the crowd who were listening to him. Some ways to translate this are:

• introduce Jesus’ answer in a general way. For example:

Jesus said
-or-
But he said in answer (New Jerusalem Bible)

• Make it clear that “them” refers to more than just the messenger or messengers. For example:

Jesus said to them all (Good News Translation)

8:21b

My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and carry it out: Here Jesus used the phrase My mother and brothers in a figurative way. His statement means that people who listen to God’s word and obey it are like blood relatives to him. He considers them as his family. He did not imply here that all people who obey God’s word are literally from his physical family. You may want to make this clear in your translation. For example:

Those who hear the word and put it into practice are just like a mother and brothers to me.
-or-

The people that I call/consider my mother and my brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.

the word of God: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the word of God means God’s message, the message that comes/came from God. Translate this in a way that can include not only the written Scriptures, but also Jesus’ teaching.

carry it out: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as carry it out is literally “doing.” It means “obey it” or “do what it says.”

© 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.