Evidently the great crowds understood that Jesus is prepared to address them. So they gather around him in a way that reminds one of the setting of the Sermon on the Mount (see 4.25–5.1). It may be necessary to say “the great crowd” or “many people.” It is important to avoid using a word for gathered that might indicate the crowds were hostile.

Evidently Jesus feels that he can address them better from the boat, so he got into a boat and sat there. Notice how Good News Translation says “… was so large that he got into a boat.” This relationship between the size of the crowd and Jesus getting into a boat is shown better in a few languages when the order of the sentence is reversed, as in “He got into a boat and sat there when (or, because) great crowds of people gathered round him.”

According to verse 10 “the disciples came and said to him,” which implies either that they entered the boat with Jesus at this time or that they later approached him in another boat. The least complicated conclusion is that the disciples entered the boat with Jesus, then later came up closer to him for the sake of making inquiry about the parables.

And is just a word used to indicate the narrative is continuing. “While” of Good News Translation also does this.

On the beach can be “on the shore,” “beside the lake,” or “near the water.”

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 .