If I have said anything wrong (New American Bible “If I said anything wrong”; Jerusalem Bible “If there is something wrong in what I said”; Moffatt “If I have said anything wrong”) is more literally “If I have spoken wrongly” (Revised Standard Version). Jesus’ words are an implicit denial that he has violated the law of Exodus 22.28. Since Jesus knows he has said nothing wrong, he challenges the High Priest to produce the evidence that would prove him guilty: tell everyone here what it was (literally “testify concerning the evil”). Moffatt renders “prove it” and Jerusalem Bible “point it out”; New English Bible (“state it in evidence”) and New American Bible (“produce the evidence”) make the reference to court evidence explicit. It seems clear that Jesus’ response is not to the man who slapped him, but to the High Priest. The guard would presumably not have been the person to give evidence of Jesus’ presumed wrongdoing, and it is unlikely that the guard would have acted unless prompted to do so by the High Priest. Thus the final clause why do you hit me? may be rendered “why do you cause me to be hit?” or “why did you cause the guard to slap me?”

But if I am right in what I have said is more literally “If I have spoken rightly” (so Revised Standard Version). Moffatt translates “if I said what was true,” and New American Bible has “but if I spoke the truth.”

The verb hit is literally “beat” and is used in the Lukan account (Luke 22.63; Good News Translation beat). In 2 Corinthians 11.20 TEV renders it slaps. Here the verb must be rendered as to convey the fact that Jesus has just been slapped.

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 .