22:12a
And he said to him: The pronoun he refers to the king. The pronoun him refers to the guest.
Also, because this clause introduces a question, it is possible to translate the verb said as “asked.” For example:
The king asked (Contemporary English Version)
Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?: This is a rhetorical question. It is a rebuke. The king rebuked the man for coming into the wedding hall without proper clothes.
Here are some ways to translate this rebuke:
• Use a question. For example:
Friend, how did you get in here wearing clothes that are not fit for a wedding?
-or-
Friend, why didn’t you wear proper clothes for the wedding? (Contemporary English Version)
• Use a statement of rebuke. For example:
Friend, you should not be in here without clothes that are proper for a wedding.
-or-
My friend, you should not have entered here. You are wearing clothes that are not fit for a wedding.
Translate this rebuke in a way that is natural in your language.
Friend: The king probably addressed the man as Friend for two reasons. One was because he didn’t know the man’s name. The other is to soften the rebuke. Use a term of address in your language that could function in this way.
This same word is used in the same way in 20:13b.
how did you get in here: This question seems to assume that there were guards whose job it was to keep the wrong people out.
Here is another way to translate this question:
how were you allowed to come in here (New Century Version)
without a wedding garment: The Greek phrase that the Revised Standard Version translates as a wedding garment probably refers to clothing that was suitable to wear to a wedding. Here it probably refers to nice, clean clothes. This phrase probably does not refer to special clothes intended for weddings. This phrase is also in 22:11b.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
without proper wedding clothes (God’s Word)
-or-
in clothes that are not fit for a wedding
22:12b
And: This Greek connection can be translated “and” or “but” depending on context. Here there is something surprising about the fact that the man did not respond. For that reason many English versions translate this with an element of contrast. For example:
But (Revised English Bible)
he was speechless: The Greek verb that the English Standard Version translates was speechless is more literally “was muzzled.” It refers to something tied over an animal’s or person’s mouth to prevent it from opening. Here it is used in a figurative sense and means that the man “was silenced.” The man was in a place he should not have been. He knew that he was guilty, and that prevented him from making an excuse.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
had nothing to say (NET Bible)
-or-
had no excuse (Good News Translation)
© 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.