15:37a

They all ate and were satisfied: The word satisfied indicates that everyone had plenty of food to eat. They all ate as much food as they wanted to eat.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

They all ate and had enough (Good News Translation)
-or-
They all ate as much as they wanted (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
They all ate until they were full (New Living Translation (1996))

This same expression occurs in 14:20a.

15:37b

and: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as and introduces what happened next in the story.

Here are some other ways to begin this part of the story:

Afterward (New International Version)
-or-
Then (New Century Version)

the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over: In Greek, this clause is more literally “and the leftovers of the fragments ⌊of food⌋ were seven basketfuls.” This clause refers to the pieces of bread and fish that were left after the crowd ate. This leftover food filled seven baskets. It shows how much food Jesus provided for the people. He gave them more than they could eat.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

• Follow the model of the Contemporary English Version and do not say anything about who picked up the leftovers. For example:

the leftovers filled seven large baskets

• Follow the model of the Berean Standard Bible and say something about those who picked up the leftovers. This is what most English versions do. For example:

Then his followers filled seven baskets with the leftover pieces of food. (New Century Version)
-or-
The disciples picked up the leftover pieces and filled seven large baskets. (God’s Word)

the disciples: The Greek text does not say who gathered the broken pieces. The crowd may have helped. But the disciples were probably the main ones responsible. In some languages, it may be natural to make this explicit like the Berean Standard Bible.

picked up: The Berean Standard Bible has supplied the verb picked up to indicate how the baskets were filled. This is the verb used in 14:20b when the disciples picked up the food remaining from the five thousand people.

Here are some other ways to translate this verb:

took up (English Standard Version)
-or-
filled (New Century Version)

basketfuls: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible here translates as basketfuls refers to a certain type of basket that is larger than the baskets that are mentioned in 14:20b. Use the word or expression here that refers to large baskets. For example:

seven large baskets (Contemporary English Version)

broken pieces: The broken pieces refer to the pieces of bread and fish that the people did not eat. This term does not refer to crumbs that had fallen to the ground.

Here are some other ways to translate this term:

leftover pieces (God’s Word)
-or-
the leftover pieces of food (New Century Version)

-or-

food that remained

This same term occurs in 14:20b.

© 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.