Good News Translation has rather radically restructured this verse. First, on the basis of verse 7, do not presume to say has been given its full form: “don’t think you can escape punishment by saying.” Then the direct discourse of the Greek (We have Abraham as our father) appears as indirect discourse in Good News Translation. Both of these translational techniques have been adopted by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, though with a different result: “You imagine that nothing can happen to you because Abraham is your ancestor. Do not fool yourselves….” Abraham is the famous ancestor of the Jews with whom God made his covenant, and it was evidently quite common for the Jews of John’s day to rest their hopes for salvation on the claim that Abraham was their ancestor. See John 8.33-41.

Translators will often find that following the example of Good News Translation in this verse is very helpful. Other translators have “Do not give yourself false hopes by saying…” or “Do not think it will save you to claim….”

As we pointed out, father here means “ancestor.” For a discussion of this word, see comments on the section heading of 1.1. Some translators may also say “It is Abraham who is our ancestor” or “We are descendants even of Abraham.”

The word for indicates a relation between the two parts of the verse. John tells the Pharisees and Sadducees they should not expect salvation simply because they are descendants of Abraham, for, John says, that does not mean a thing in God’s sight. God could provide all the descendants of Abraham he needed, even making them from these stones if necessary. In some languages, to make this flow of ideas clear, translators say “Believe me” or “I tell you this because….”

These stones (Good News Translation “rocks”) is an evident allusion to the stones of the Judean desert. The general interpretation is that from these stones means that God will use them as the material for making descendants for Abraham, as seen in Good News Translation.

In Hebrew there is a play on words between children (banim) and stones (abanim). In the context children has the extended meaning of “descendants” (Good News Translation). In most languages it will be well to use “descendants” so no one will think it means actual children.

As witnessed by Deuteronomy 18.15, 18, the expression raise up is here equivalent to “cause to be born.” Good News Translation translates raise up children to Abraham as “make descendants for Abraham.” Translators can say “produce descendants” or “cause descendants to be born.”

The phrase to Abraham is not natural English, and “for Abraham,” as in Good News Translation, is certainly better in most languages. Other suggestions are “God can use these stones to make descendants of Abraham” and “God can make descendants of Abraham out of these stones.”

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 .