Turned translates a participle which is dependent upon the main verb said in the Greek sentence structure. But most English translations represent them both as finite verbs, as do Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Bible en français courant. Other languages may require quite different ways of dealing with the two forms. Barclay renders turned dramatically with “swung round.” Similar expressions would include “turned toward Peter” or “turned and faced Peter.”
Get behind me (so also New Jerusalem Bible, Moffatt), a literal rendering of the Greek, is translated “Get away from me” by Good News Translation; New English Bible (“Away with you”) and Phillips (“Out of my way”) are similar to Good News Bible. As some commentators note, the meaning may well be “Get out of my sight” (An American Translation, Barclay, New American Bible) or “Out of my sight” (New International Version).
Satan (see comments on 4.10) is here used of Peter, and some translations attempt to make the identification clear for the reader: “you Satan” (An American Translation) and “you satan” (New American Bible). But other languages may necessitate a totally different restructuring: “You are acting like Satan,” “You are playing the role of Satan,” or “You are speaking the words of Satan.”
These latter examples show clearly what Jesus means when he calls Peter Satan, but they may lose some of the sharp sting that “Satan” by itself has. Since in the following sentence Jesus shows what he means when he calls Peter this, translators often try to keep the rebuke Satan in this sentence and then start the next one with “I call you that because you are an obstacle….”
The noun rendered hindrance (so also Moffatt) or “obstacle” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible) is generally given the literal meaning “stumbling block” (New English Bible, New International Version, RSV footnote). Several translations shift to a verb phrase: “you stand right in my path” (Phillips), “You hinder me” (An American Translation), “You’re doing your best to trip me up!” (Barclay), and “You are trying to make me trip and fall” (New American Bible).
Often translators have to show in what way Peter is being a hindrance, as in “You are hindering me from doing God’s will” or “… from doing what I must do.”
For you are not on the side of God contrasts with but of men; literally the two clauses read “for you are not thinking the things of God, but the things of men.” New English Bible retains the verb “think” but inverts the order: “You think as men think, not as God thinks” (so also Phillips “you think the thoughts of man and not those of God”). On the other hand, New International Version follows the order of the Greek as much as English allows: “you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” For many translators an easier way to express this is “You are thinking like a man, not the way God does” or “The way you are thinking is like a man, not like God.”
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 .