And when Jesus had finished instructing refers back to chapter 10. The verb instructing occurs only here in the Gospel of Matthew; it is found with more frequency in Luke–Acts (nine times), four times in 1 Corinthians, and once each in Galatians and Titus.

In some languages, to make it clear that And when Jesus had finished instructing refers to the previous section, translators say “When Jesus finished teaching these things,” “After Jesus finished…,” or “Jesus finished giving instructions to his disciples. Then he left….”

Instructing, as seen in the above examples, is often rendered “teaching.” Some languages require a direct object for “teaching,” so translators say “teaching all these things.”

His twelve disciples may need to be “the twelve disciples who followed him.”

He went on from there to teach and preach is translated “he left that place and went to teach and preach” by New English Bible. Some languages may require two verbs of motion such as are found in Good News Translation: “left … went off.” Another way is “he left there to go….”

In place of to teach and preach, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch substitutes one verb and an object: “to proclaim the Good News.” This is evidently done on the assumption that the two verbs in the Greek text are essentially equivalent in meaning. Translators who do wish to keep the two verbs should see the discussion at 3.1 for preach, and note that as elsewhere (for example, 5.2), teach may require either an object (“teach about the Good News”) or an indirect object (“teach the people there”).

In their cities (New English Bible “in the neighbouring towns”) is most likely an allusion to Jewish towns, as the New Jerusalem Bible footnote explains. Some scholars further restrict the reference to the Jewish towns of Galilee.

Their cities can appear to refer to towns or cities of the twelve disciples. This is probably not correct. “Towns of that area” is better, or “other towns of the Jews.”

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 .