The participle translated completely puzzled is also used in Acts 25.20 (Good News Translation undecided) and in 2 Corinthians 4.8 (Good News Translation in doubt). It is used in Luke 24.4 in an infinitive form (Good News Translation puzzled), and in Galatians 4.20 as a finite verb (Good News Translation so worried). In the present passage New English Bible translates “in bewilderment”; Jerusalem Bible, “wondering”; New American Bible, “puzzled”; Moffatt “at a loss”; and Phillips “completely mystified.” In some languages completely puzzled may be best expressed in a negative phrase: “They couldn’t understand at all” or “They could not figure out.”

About whom he meant (Goodspeed, New American Bible “as to whom he could mean”) is more literally “of whom he spoke.” New English Bible translates the entire verse as “The disciples looked at one another in bewilderment: whom could he be speaking of?”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .