Do not be anxious translates an aorist subjunctive in Greek which normally carries an ingressive force, focusing upon the beginning of the action. That is why Good News Translation includes the helping verb “start” (“do not start worrying”). Both New American Bible (“Stop worrying, then, over questions like…”) and Barclay (“So then, make up your mind to stop worrying, and to stop saying…”) take the aorist subjunctive to have force other than its usual one of initiating an action. This probably is best in this context.

The word anxious itself will be translated as it has been elsewhere (see verse 25). Here it can be “Don’t start being overly concerned” or “Don’t now let yourself be distracted by the concerns of.”

Following the command do not be anxious is a participle which Revised Standard Version translates saying. New Jerusalem Bible renders the entire construction “So do not worry; do not say,” and New English Bible “No, do not ask anxiously.”

For a literal rendering of the three questions (What shall … eat … drink … wear?) see Revised Standard Version. Although the Greek has a first person plural in each instance, Good News Translation follows with a first person singular, since this is a more natural form in English.

Another way to handle this verse is to say “Don’t keep on worrying about where your food, drink, or clothes will come from” or “Don’t let yourself be distracted with worries about how you will get something to eat and drink and clothing to wear.”

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 .