10:4a

Simon the Zealot: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Zealot is literally “Cananaean.” This word is transliterated from the Greek. It refers to someone being greatly interested and excited about something. It does not refer to someone from the locations of Cana or Canaan. It is more commonly translated in English versions as Zealot, as the Berean Standard Bible does. It is not mentioned here what Simon was interested and excited about. He was probably strongly in favor of Israel becoming independent from the Roman government.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

Simon, known as the Eager One (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Simon the nationalist
-or-
Simon the Patriot (Good News Translation)

10:4b

Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus: The word Iscariot may have some meaning. But it is best to follow the English versions and translate the word Iscariot as a second name or surname for this last disciple.

who betrayed Jesus: The word betrayed means “put someone in danger by giving information about him to his enemy.” Later in the story, Judas betrayed Jesus by helping Jesus’ enemies arrest him.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

who sold Jesus to his enemies

-or-

who gave/delivered Jesus to his enemies

Since Matthew wrote this after Judas betrayed Jesus, he used the past tense. But at this point in the story, Judas had not yet betrayed him. It may be more natural in your language to indicate that he betrayed Jesus later in the story. For example:

who ⌊later⌋ betrayed him

© 2023 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.