Revised Standard Version many is rendered “Many men” by Good News Translation, but “many people” is equally possible, although in this context a man is more likely than a woman.

Will come translates a verb that is frequently used in the New Testament and ordinarily refers to a person’s arrival. Come may, however, pose a problem in languages where it is only used to mean coming to where the listeners or readers are. In those cases “appear” will be better.

In my name is best understood in light of saying, “I am the Christ,” which is the basis for the restructuring of several modern translations: “attempting to impersonate me” (New American Bible), “claiming to be me” (Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition), “claiming to speak for me” (Good News Translation), and “claiming that they are my representatives” (Barclay). Several Messianic pretenders did arise in the first century (see Acts 5.36-37; 21.38), but as far as is known, none of them pretended to be Jesus himself.

I am the Christ conforms to both the confession of Peter (16.16) and the expectation of the Jews (2.4). For Christ, see discussions at 1.1; 1.16; and 1.17. In many languages this claim will have to be in indirect speech: “For many people will come claiming that they speak for me, saying they are the Messiah.”

The expression lead … astray can be rendered as in verse 4 above, but it does have the meaning of causing people to believe wrongly or even to do something that is not right. Thus “mislead” or “cause to follow the wrong thing” are close to the meaning of the text.

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 .