From men should be expressed in the same way it was translated in verse 25. Again, as with “From heaven” in verse 25, a short sentence may be required: “But if we say, ‘Some person gave it to him’ ” or “But if we say that his authority came from a person.”

In the Gospel of Mark (11.32), we are afraid of the multitude; for all hold that John was a prophet appears as a parenthetical statement by the author and not as a direct statement of the Jewish leaders. By transferring this to a direct statement of Jesus’ opponents, Matthew lays greater stress both upon the fear which the Jewish leaders had of the masses and upon their alienation from the ordinary folk.

In Revised Standard Version the English of this verse is rather awkward, and the Good News Translation restructuring is somewhat confusing. One may then want to follow the pattern of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “But if we say, ‘From man,’ then we will have the people against us, because they are all convinced that John was a prophet.” Or “We cannot say, ‘John acted on his own authority.’ The people are convinced that John was a prophet, and the people might do something bad to us if we say that.” Or “The people are convinced that John was a prophet, and they might harm us if we say, ‘Some human being gave John his authority.’ ”

For comment on prophet, see 1.22.

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 .