And they: it may be useful to identify they as “The disciples” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), since the last group of persons mentioned were “the Pharisees and Sadducees” of verse 6.

Discussed (Good News Translation “started discussing”) translates a verb which may mean “consider” or “reason (out something),” while the phrase among themselves may also mean “inwardly.”

What the disciples began discussing, represented by the pronoun it, may need to be made more definite. Translators can say “discussing what Jesus had said” or “… these words.”

We brought no bread will strike many readers as completely senseless, unless there is further qualification, and some translations indicate an awareness of the difficulty: “He says this because we didn’t bring any bread” (Good News Translation), “It is because we have not brought any bread” (New Jerusalem Bible), and “It is because we have brought no bread” (New English Bible). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch overcomes the problem by shifting to indirect discourse: “The disciples took this to refer to their forgetfulness.” Barclay also effectively utilizes indirect discourse: “They kept on talking among themselves about bringing no loaves.” In Moffatt the whole of verse 7 is translated “They argued among themselves, ‘But we have not brought any bread!’ ”

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 .