In some languages it is not possible to say the crowd answered, for a crowd as such does not answer; rather “the people in the crowd answered.”

You have a demon in you! is literally “You have a demon!” (Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version reflect the historical cultural situation. The people in Jesus’ day believed in demons, and they believed that demons caused people to act in certain ways. Contemporary psychological terminology fails to convey this historical perspective, but some translators fail to recognize the importance of maintaining the biblical perspective. For example, Phillips has “You must be mad!” while Moffatt, Jerusalem Bible and the New American Bible have “You are mad!” “You are possessed!” (New English Bible) comes close to the meaning, but fails to make explicit the reference to demons. Although Revised Standard Version renders this sentence correctly, its translation of the following sentence could be seriously misunderstood by a person hearing the Scripture read. If the Scripture is not read orally with the proper intonations, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” may be understood by the hearers to mean “You have a demon who is seeking to kill you.” To avoid this kind of ambiguity, it may be better to render the question as “What people are trying to kill you?” or “Who are the people who are trying to kill you?”

As noted elsewhere, one may speak of a person “having a demon” in different ways, for example, “being ridden by a demon,” “being possessed by a demon,” or “having a demon living inside of one.” Demons are frequently spoken of as possessing people, rather than people possessing demons.

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 .