They tried to arrest him may be more accurately expressed as either “they wanted to arrest him” (New English Bible) or “they would have liked to arrest him” (New Jerusalem Bible). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar to New Jerusalem Bible. Arrest may have to be expressed as “seize” or “take away to jail.”

Multitudes (Good News Translation “crowds”) is singular in Mark (12.12); Luke has “the people” (20.19), a term which normally refers to the Jewish people.

Because they held him to be a prophet is found only in Matthew. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch restructures the last part of the verse: “… but they did not risk it, because the crowd considered him a prophet.” Another rendering is “… but they were afraid to try it since they knew that the crowds considered Jesus to be a prophet.”

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 .