Since the previous verse does not really report on what the disciples said to Jesus, answered may not be the most natural thing to say in the translation. Good News Translation has “said,” for example.

You see all these, do you not? is a difficult negative rhetorical question which expects a positive response. Both Good News Translation: (“Yes … you may well look at all these”) and New English Bible (“Yes, look at it all”) simplify by shifting to a positive statement. Others retain the question form, though in a less complex construction: “Does all this astound you?” (Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition) and “Do you see all these buildings?” (New American Bible).

Truly, I say to you translates the same formula discussed at 5.18.

There will not be left here one stone upon another may also be expressed “every stone here will be removed from its place” or “… from its proper place in the building.” A shift may be made to an active: “The time will come when your enemies will remove (or, tear down) every stone from its proper place in the building.”

That will not be thrown down may also be expressed by a positive statement: “all will be scattered on the ground” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) and “everything will be destroyed” (Jerusalem Bible). Barclay rather effectively translates the clause as “There is not a building here which will not be utterly demolished.”

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 .