Paragraph 6:39–44

Jesus told the disciples to have all the people sit down. Then he did a miracle in order to give food to all of them to eat. There was more food left after they ate than there had been before they ate.

6:39a

Then: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Then introduces the next step in a sequence of closely related events. Use a word or expression that does this in your language. For example:

After that
-or-
And then

Jesus directed them: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as directed means “commanded,” “ordered,” or “urged.”

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

he gave orders
-or-
he told them

them: In the Greek text, the pronoun them is ambiguous. There are two ways to interpret this word:

(1) It refers to the disciples. For example, the Good News Bible says:

Jesus then told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass.

(Berean Standard Bible, Good News Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, King James Version, Revised English Bible, New Century Version, New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version)

(2) It refers to the crowd. For example, the New Living Translation, 1996 edition says:

Then Jesus told the crowd to sit down in groups on the green grass.

(New Living Translation, Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, NET Bible, God’s Word, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). Jesus commanded the crowds indirectly, by telling his disciples to tell the crowds to sit down. However, there is strong support in commentaries and English versions for both interpretations. (Luke and John told this same story in their Gospels, and in those books the Greek follows interpretation (1). See Luke 9:14 and John 6:10. Matthew also told this story in his Gospel. Matthew 14:19 says that Jesus “directed the crowds to sit down,” which follow interpretation (2). So it appears that Jesus commanded the crowds indirectly, through the disciples.)

6:39b

to have the people sit in groups: The command to have all the people sit means “to cause them to sit down.”

Here are some other ways to translate this:

to tell them to sit down in groups
-or-
to seat them in groups
-or-
to organize them into groups and tell them to sit down

on the green grass: The place where everyone was standing was a grassy area. Jesus wanted them to sit down where they were, that is, on the grass where they were standing. He was not telling them to go looking for grass to sit down on.

If grass is uncommon in your area, you may want to use a general term. For example:

on the ground

green grass: The term green grass refers to short grass that is fresh (green). It was not dry, brown grass.

General Comment on 6:39a–b

In some languages it may be natural to translate 6:39b using direct speech. For example:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Tell all the people to sit down in groups on the grass.”

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