Jesus, aware of this (Good News Translation “When Jesus heard about the plot against him”) translates a Greek construction which does not have an object expressed. But most languages will expect an object. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “When Jesus heard of it,” and Barclay renders “Jesus was well aware of what they were doing.” Since the text says aware of this and does not actually indicate whether Jesus heard of the plotting or simply knew of it on his own, many translators use “Jesus knew about this.” This is often rendered “their plot” or “what they were planning (to do).”
Withdrew (Good News Translation “went away”) is used quite frequently in Matthew’s Gospel: 2.12, 13, 14, 22; 4.12; 9.24; 12.15; 14.13; 15.21; 27.5. Outside of this Gospel it occurs in the New Testament only four times (Mark 3.7; John 6.15; Acts 23.19; 26.31).
To make the sentence natural, translators may need to restructure slightly, as in “Jesus knew about their plots and therefore went away from there” or “Jesus left that place, however, because he knew about their plotting against him.”
The text uses yet again the word And to show continuity in the narrative. However, some translators have found it more natural to use “But.”
Many (so also New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible): Good News Translation has “large crowds,” while New American Bible has “many people.” A textual problem does exist in the Greek text: some manuscripts have “many crowds,” while others simply have many. TC-GNT favors the shorter wording, on the assumption that scribes may have sought to have strengthened many by the addition of the noun “crowds,” especially since “many crowds” is a familiar phrase in the Gospel (4.25; 8.1; 13.2; 15.30; 19.2). It is quite obvious that Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and New English Bible adopt this shorter text, though it may appear that Good News Translation does not. However, it is quite possible that Good News Translation represents a translational adjustment for naturalness rather than an acceptance of the longer text. In English it is more natural to follow the adjective “many” with a noun, and this is what Good News Translation has done. Barclay, probably for the same reason, has “large numbers of people”; New American Bible and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have “many people.”
Followed him: see comments on 4.20. It is difficult to determine whether Matthew intends the extended meaning of “follow as a disciple.” Thus a translation such as “followed” or “went where he was” is possible, but so is “became his followers” or “followed him as disciples.”
Them all has many as its antecedent, intimating that everyone who followed Jesus was sick and that Jesus healed them all. However, it is possible to understand the text to signify that within the crowds who followed Jesus were a large number of sick people, and that Jesus healed all of them (Good News Translation “all the sick”). Most modern English translations seem not to recognize this problem; New English Bible (“he cured all who were ill”) and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“he healed all the sick”) are sensitive to the difficulty. “He healed all of them who were sick” will be a clear rendering. This can be a separate sentence, as in Good News Translation, or can be introduced by and, as in the text, whichever makes the passage read more smoothly.
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 .