8:55a
Her spirit returned: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Her spirit returned means that the girl came back to life. Her spirit had left her body when she died, but it now returned to her, and she lived again.
Many languages have an expression that refers to a person’s life or spirit leaving the body when he or she dies. In those languages you may be able to use a similar expression to describe coming back to life. For example:
her spirit/soul returned
-or-
her breath returned
-or-
her life returned
In some languages, the expression Her spirit returned may have a different meaning such as “she became strong/courageous again.” If this is true in your language, you may want to say plainly:
She came back to life (Contemporary English Version)
8:55b
And He directed that she be given something to eat: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as be given is passive. Some ways to translate this verb are:
• As a passive verb. For example:
He ordered that something be given to her to eat.
-or-
Jesus ordered food to be given to her. (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
• As an active verb. The Greek text does not say to whom Jesus spoke. Jesus probably gave this instruction to the parents or to the mother. The parents may have called a servant to bring food for their daughter. For example:
He ordered her parents to give her something to eat. (God’s Word)
-or-
He ordered that someone should give her something to eat.
In some languages it may be more natural to use direct speech here. For example:
…and he said, “Give her something to eat.”
-or-
…and he told ⌊the parents⌋, “Cause some food to be given to her so that she may eat.”
© 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.