12:39a
and to have the chief seats in the synagogues: When the people gathered to worship in the synagogues, the scribes loved to sit in the places where the most important men sat. They were happy when others treated them as important people.
the chief seats: There was a bench in front of the Jewish synagogue that was in the shape of a half circle. It was large enough for several men to sit on it. When men sat on this bench, they faced the rest of the people in the room. The people could easily see them. People considered the men who sat on that bench to be important.
synagogues: A synagogue was a building where Jews gathered to pray, read scripture, teach their beliefs, and worship. The Jews also gathered there for cultural activities. There was only one temple (in Jerusalem), but each Jewish community had a synagogue.
Here are some other ways to translate synagogue:
prayer-house of the Jews
-or-
meeting-place of the Jews
-or-
worship building
-or-
house for gathering together
If you make explicit a phrase such as “of the Jews,” be sure that it does not imply that Jesus was not a Jew.
If the word synagogue is already known in your area, you may write it according to the sounds of your language. You may want to include a word or phrase to explain the meaning. For example:
sinagog house/building
Consider using a footnote that contains some of the information above. See synagogue in the Glossary.
12:39b
and the places of honor at banquets: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the places of honor means “the seats for the most honored guests” or “the best seats.” These were the seats that were nearest the host.
banquets: The word banquets refers here to feasts where people gathered to eat and celebrate together.
© 2008 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.