Most of the crowd … and others may need to be restructured slightly. “Most of the people in the crowd … and some of them (or, some of the rest of them)” is an example.

After spread their garments on the road, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch adds “as a carpet.” In many places of the modern world it is customary to roll out a carpet for a visiting dignitary, but there is the possibility that the action of the people (especially that of spreading tree branches in the road) may be understood in a negative sense. The addition of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch immediately avoids this potential misunderstanding. Another quite common solution is to add “for him to ride on.” Another is to add “to honor him,” either after on the road or at the end of the verse.

As with the garments the disciples spread over the donkeys, garments here probably refers to the outer coats. See Matthew 21.7 above.

Regarding the branches, it seems unlikely that the crowd cut large branches. As with the coats, the idea is to have something for the donkeys to walk on. It was a way of showing honor to Jesus.

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 .