This section begins with a construction which makes it seem the readers already know Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem: And as Jesus was going. For this reason many translators restructure the first part of the verse: “Jesus was going (or, Jesus and his disciples were going) up to Jerusalem. As he was on the way, he took the twelve disciples aside and spoke to them.”
In place of And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem (so most translations), some Greek manuscripts have “As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem” (Moffatt; see also An American Translation, New American Bible). TC-GNT concludes that the verb “about to” was included by later scribes in order to clear up a point of geography. It is only from the city of Jericho onward that one actually goes “up” to Jerusalem, and Jericho is not mentioned until verse 29. Therefore at this point Jesus is only “about to” get to the place (Jericho) where he will “go up” to Jerusalem. For most languages it will probably be necessary to indicate from the outset of this verse that Jesus’ disciples were accompanying him: “As Jesus and his twelve disciples were going up to Jerusalem, he took them aside….”
Took … aside (Good News Translation “took … aside … privately”) translates a verb plus adverb construction. Barclay and Moffatt have “he took the Twelve aside by themselves” (An American Translation “he took the Twelve off by themselves”), while Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “he called them to himself privately.” The Greek verb itself may mean either “take” or “take aside,” while the adverbial construction is literally “to himself.” Revised Standard Version seems to translate the verb as took and the adverbial construction as aside, because in Mark 10.32 (where the adverbial construction does not follow the verb) Revised Standard Version translates this same verb as “taking.” However, even in Mark, and without the adverb, the verb must surely mean “take aside,” or else the Marcan passage makes no sense. For example, Jerusalem Bible here translates “took … to one side” and has “taking … aside” at Mark 10.32, while New English Bible and New International Version have “took … aside” for both passages (New American Bible has “took … aside” and “taking … aside”). By way of summary one may conclude: (1) In both Matthew 20.17 and Mark 10.32 the verb must mean “take aside.” (2) The Matthean addition “by himself” must somehow show up in translation so as to distinguish the Matthean text from that of Mark. The best solution is to handle this in a manner similar to that of Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Barclay, An American Translation, and Moffatt.
On the way (so also New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible), a noun construction in Greek, is translated “as they walked along” by Good News Translation, Phillips, and Barclay. Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition uses an adverb which means “along the way.” The phrase does not necessarily imply movement, and for some languages the force of the phrase is contained in the verb “was going up.”
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 .