9:20a

But what about you?: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as “But what about you” is literally “But you.” The pronoun you is emphatic and contrasts the disciples with the crowds in the previous verse.

Jesus asked: The Berean Standard Bible has placed the clause Jesus asked in the middle of what Jesus said. In the Greek text it comes before the speech begins. Place it where it is most natural in your language.

Who do you say I am?: Jesus asked the disciples to tell him who they thought he was. This question is similar to the one in 9:18b.

9:20b

Peter answered, “The Christ of God”: As in previous verse parts, Peter’s answer left some information implied. In some languages it may be natural to make this information explicit. For example:

You are the Christ from God. (New Century Version)

The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as The Christ of God means:

the Christ from God (New Century Version)
-or-
the Messiah whom God has sent (God’s Word)

Be careful that you do not use a phrase that means “the Christ who belongs to God.”

Christ: Here the word Christ is used as a title. It is not just one of Jesus’ names. The Jews used this title to refer to the person whom God had appointed and promised to send as king and savior. The title Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah,” and the two words have the same meaning.

Some ways to translate Christ are:

• Use a title or a descriptive phrase in your language that has the same meaning as Christ. For example:

Messiah (Good News Translation)
-or-
Promised Deliverer
-or-
the Rescuer-King whom God sent

• Transliterate Christ or “Messiah” and include a phrase that explains the meaning. For example:

Karisiti, the appointed one
-or-
Cristo, the Savior whom God promised to send
-or-
the Messiah sent from God (Contemporary English Version)

• Transliterate Christ and indicate in some way that it is a title. For example:

the Kirisita

You may want to explain the meaning of Christ in a footnote or in a glossary. For example:

The word/title “Christ” refers to the king and savior whom God had promised to send.

See also Christ in the Glossary.

© 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.