In many languages it is not really very natural to have a transition like For here, and most translations omit it. However, For can be seen as necessary in explaining why Jesus called the young women foolish. In that case verses 2 and 3 can be restructured something like this: “Five of them were wise, but five were foolish because they didn’t take with them any oil for their lamps.” In fact, it is also possible to include verse 4 in the restructuring and say “Five of them were wise, and they took containers of oil, but five were foolish….”

Oil is translated “extra oil” by Good News Translation on the basis of “our lamps are going out” of verse 8. This intimates that the girls originally had oil in their lamps but failed to take an additional supply to refill them. But it also makes sense to say merely that they didn’t take any oil with them, since in either case the point is that they did not have lamps that could be lit.

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 .