3:30a

Jesus made this statement: The phrase Jesus made this statement is not in the Greek. The Berean Standard Bible has added it because it is implied, and it makes the sentence sound natural in English. It connects 3:30 to all that Jesus said in 3:23–29.

It may also be natural and helpful in your language to add a phrase that connects 3:30 to 3:23–29. Here are some ways to do this:

Jesus talked about speaking against the Holy Spirit…
-or-
Jesus warned them about insulting the Holy Spirit…

3:30b

because: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as because introduces the reason why Jesus talked about the unforgivable sin.

they: The pronoun they refers to the scribes from Jerusalem. They were saying that Jesus was doing things by Satan’s power.

3:30c

He has an unclean spirit: In this context the scribes believed that an unclean spirit controlled Jesus. They believed that Jesus was using the power of that spirit. Use an appropriate expression in your language to describe this. For example:

He is controlled by an evil spirit.
-or-
He is using the power of an evil spirit.

See how you translated the similar expressions in 1:23a and 3:22c. See also evil spirit in the Glossary.

General Comment on 3:30b–c

In some languages it may be more natural to translate the quotation in 3:30b–c as indirect speech. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:

because the people were saying that he had an evil spirit in him (Contemporary English Version)

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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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