Friend is a polite form of address (see 20.13); it is the noun by which Jesus addresses Judas when he comes to betray him in the garden (26.50).

How did you get in here without a wedding garment? is divided into two sentences by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “How did you get in here? You are not wearing festive clothes.” Another possibility is “Friend, you are not wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. How come you are here?” When the king asks how did you get in, he is not asking about the method by which the man came. Rather, it is a way of exclaiming about the inappropriate clothes the man is wearing. Since the question is rhetorical, one may also render “You are not wearing the proper clothes for a wedding feast, and so you have no right to be here.”

And he was speechless is rendered “The man had no excuse” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. More literally the text is “And the man was silent” (New Jerusalem Bible). One may also translate “There was nothing that the man could say.”

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 .