As both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation indicate, this verse is a continuation of the sentence begun in verse 2. For many languages it will be advisable to begin a new sentence with verse 3.

Truly, I say to you translates the same expression used in 5.26, except that you is plural here. Its function is to place heavy emphasis upon the saying which follows.

Unless you turn and become like children does not refer to a return to the state of childhood in all its respects. As TOB’s footnote correctly indicates, the contrast is between the pretentious attitude of the disciples and the lack of pretension on the part of a child. Children are humble and unconcerned about status, whereas the disciples are each hoping for the highest position within the kingdom. Phillips translates “unless you change your whole outlook and become like little children”; Barclay is similar: “unless you change the whole direction of your lives….” In place of the negative form, a positive statement may be substituted: “You must completely change your attitude and….”

There are translators who have felt that they should make the basis of the simile like children explicit by using an expression such as “become humble like children are” or “become unpretentious the way children are.” However, if as we suggest above, turn is translated with an expression such as “change your lives,” then it is not necessary to fill out the comparison like this. “Unless you change and take the attitude a child has” can be sufficient.

Translators can use “a child” or children, whichever fits the context better.

You will never enter the kingdom of heaven may also require considerable restructuring. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “then you will never enter into God’s new world.” Other translations have said “then you will never become a part of God’s Kingdom” or “then you will never be one of the people under the rule of God.” By changing “unless” to “only if,” INCL is able to use a positive statement: “only if you change and become as children, can you become a part of God’s people.”

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 .