When the disciples reached the other side: for the other side, see comment at 8.18; Good News Translation has “the other side of the lake,” and Jerusalem Bible “the other shore.” Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition translates the clause “When the disciples crossed over by boat to the other shore.”

Had forgotten (so also New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) expresses more accurately the time sequence than does the simple past (“forgot”) of Good News Translation. Obviously the disciples forgot to take bread along with them before they left in the boat, though they only realized it after they had crossed the lake; Good News Translation would imply that the two actions of forgetting the bread and of crossing the lake happened simultaneously. One may then translate “The disciples forgot to take bread along with them when they crossed over to the other side of the lake (where Jesus was)” or “The disciples crossed over to the other side of the lake where Jesus was, but they had forgotten to take any bread with them.”

Note in the above examples that bring has been rendered “take,” which is the more natural form in English. Translators should use whichever is better in their language.

There are many cases where bread represents “food,” but that choice would not be the best translation here. In verse 6 the disciples think Jesus speaks of yeast because they had forgotten bread, a food made with yeast, so bread should be retained.

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 .