9:8a
the crowds: The word crowds here refers to the people watching the miracle.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
the group of people
-or-
the people
saw this: The pronoun this refers to the miracle of the man being healed. In some languages, it may be necessary to include this information. For example:
When the crowd saw this ⌊man healed⌋
-or-
When the crowd saw ⌊the man get up and walk⌋
they were filled with awe: There is a textual issue in this verse:
(1) Some Greek manuscripts have the word that means afraid. For example:
they were afraid (Good News Translation)
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, English Standard Version, Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, NET Bible, God’s Word, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation (2004), Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible)
(2) Some Greek manuscripts have the word that means amazed. For example:
they were amazed (New Century Version)
(New Century Version, King James Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1) and the majority of English versions. Even though the Berean Standard Bible uses the Greek manuscripts that have the word for afraid, the word awe in the Berean Standard Bible is ambiguous and could mean either “afraid” or “amazed” (or perhaps both).
This Greek word can also mean that the crowd “had feelings of reverence and wonder all at once.” Seeing the power of God caused the people to be afraid and be filled with awe.
Here is another way to translate this word:
They felt fear and great reverence
9:8b
and glorified God, who had given such authority to men: The Berean Standard Bible translates 9:8b as a type of relative clause. (A relative clause is a clause that usually starts with a relative pronoun. Here, the relative pronoun is the word who.) This type of relative clause describes God.
In some languages, this type of relative clause will imply that there are two Gods, one who has given authority and one who has not given authority. For those languages, it will be necessary to translate this part of the verse without using a relative clause.
Here are some other ways to translate these clauses:
and they glorified God because he had given such authority to a person/Jesus
-or-
and praised God for giving such authority to people (Good News Translation)
glorified: This word indicates that they honored and praised God. For example:
praised (New International Version)
-or-
honored (NET Bible)
such authority: In this context, the phrase such authority could refer to the authority to forgive sins or the authority to heal a paralyzed person or both. It probably refers to both.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
power like this (New Century Version)
-or-
authority like that
-or-
that kind of authority
to men: The word men is general in this context and refers to people. The people saw Jesus as a prophet to whom God gave power. So they made a general statement about God empowering people.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
to people (Good News Translation)
-or-
to human beings (New Century Version)
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