When they persecute you in one town may be translated “When the people of one town persecute you.”
Flee to the next represents the wording of the UBS Greek text. Some Greek manuscripts have an additional clause, “and if they persecute you in the other, then run away to the next.” According to TC-GNT, the committee for the UBS Greek text believes that the additional clause was added in order to explain the following statement, though they acknowledge the possibility that it may have accidentally been omitted from the text, and so they judge their choice of text as “C,” indicating a considerable degree of doubt. Most modern translations also prefer the shorter text, though both New Jerusalem Bible and Bible de Jérusalem include the additional clause.
Flee can be rendered as “run away” or “leave there quickly and go to the next town.”
Truly, I say to you: for comments, see 5.18. The most recent occurrence of the phrase is in 10.15.
You will not have gone through is more literally “you will not have completed.” The meaning is not merely that the disciples will not have had the opportunity to travel through all the towns of Israel, as Traduction œcuménique de la Bible and Bible de Jérusalem seem to imply, but that they will not have had the opportunity to perform their work of preaching and healing in all these towns (see verses 7-8). Therefore Good News Translation has “you will not finish your work in all the towns.” It may be necessary in some languages to say “you will not have had time to work” or “there won’t be time to carry your message to.”
Before the Son of man comes is extremely difficult to interpret. This is the third reference in the Gospel to the Son of man. The first two (8.20; 9.6) are evident allusions to the life and suffering of the Son of Man on earth, but here the emphasis is different, and the time reference is unclear. Some scholars believe this saying was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (see New Jerusalem Bible footnote, which alludes to 24.1 and following). But there is little or no support for this in the context. A second group of scholars believe that the event in mind is the glorification of the Son of Man in his passion and resurrection. But there is no indication either that this is meant. The interpretation that enjoys widest acceptance among scholars is that the saying refers to the final coming of the glorified Son of Man, and this is also supported by other passages within Matthew’s Gospel (see in particular 13.41; 16.27, 28; 19.28; 24.27, 30, 37, 39, 44; 25.31; 26.64).
Comes will be translated literally by translators who prefer not to interpret it otherwise, but this ignores the fact that Jesus did mean it in a particular way that his disciples probably understood. Thus “comes with (or, into) the glory of God” is probably better.
That Jesus should refer to the Son of Man in the third person is difficult both exegetically and translationally. From an exegetical perspective at least two questions are paramount: (1) Is Jesus speaking of himself or of someone else? (2) Is this the proper context for the saying, or has Matthew placed here a saying which originated at another time and in another setting? On these issues scholarly opinion is sharply divided, and no answer will remain undebated. But in terms of translation the following observations and comments should be useful. First, it cannot be denied that from Matthew’s own perspective the Son of Man is always identified with Jesus. Moreover, whatever the original setting of the saying, Matthew has chosen to place it in the mouth of Jesus at this particular moment in his Gospel. Therefore the real question that arises for the translator relates to the use of the third-person reference. See 8.20 for a discussion of that problem and of Son of man. As we point out there, third person must be changed in some languages to a first-person reference. And this shift immediately involves the problem of the verb comes, since Jesus is standing there at the moment he makes this promise. One solution is to translate comes as “comes back” or “returns”; one may then translate “before I, the Son of Man, come back.” But the shift to “come back” is not as satisfactory as is an alternative solution: “… until I, the Son of Man, come in glory” or “… come into my glory.” This latter interpretation finds support in the other passages in the Gospel, where Jesus announces the coming of the Son of Man in glory.
In many languages a more natural order for this sentence is “For I assure you the Son of Man will come with the glory of God before you have carried out my message to all the towns of Israel.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .