SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 17:16



17:16

I brought him: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as brought is the verb that Matthew frequently used when people were brought to Jesus for healing. Here the man probably brought his son to the disciples while Jesus was on the mountain.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

I took/led him
-or-
I went with him

to Your disciples: These disciples were most likely the nine disciples who did not go up the mountain with Jesus.

but: There is a mild contrast here. The contrast is between the man’s expectation that the disciples could heal his son, and the disciples’ inability to do so. Some English versions do not indicate this contrast. For example:

and they could not heal him (English Standard Version)

they could not heal him: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as could not implies that the disciples tried to heal the boy, but they failed.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

they were not able to heal him (NET Bible)

-or-

they did not have the strength/power to cure 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.

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