And when Jesus entered Peter’s house is translated “Jesus went to Peter’s home” by Good News Translation. The most noticeable difference is that Revised Standard Version uses a temporal clause, while Good News Translation does not. The basis for this difference is the Greek verb form, which is a participle and may be rendered as either an independent (“Jesus went”) or dependent (when Jesus entered) clause. New English Bible has “Jesus then went to Peter’s house…”; New American Bible “Jesus entered Peter’s house.” New Jerusalem Bible maintains the participial form of the Greek text: “And going into Peter’s house….” All of these different renderings are merely stylistic variations and do not represent any difference of exegesis.

The stylistic variations are important, however, in languages that do require some sort of transition. Such languages may have to say “Then Jesus went to Peter’s house” or “Jesus went to Peter’s house. When he went in….”

In both Mark (1.29) and Luke (4.38) Peter is referred to by the name “Simon.” But even more significant than the difference in names is the observation that in Matthew it is Jesus himself who takes the initiative in healing Simon’s mother-in-law: he saw his (that is, Peter’s) mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. In the Mark and Luke accounts, the people had to call Jesus’ attention to the sick woman. Here, however, it is said that Jesus saw her and then took the initiative to heal her.

Saw may need to be translated “found,” but the sentence should still reflect that Jesus was the one taking the initiative.

The mother-in-law is Peter’s, as we indicated above. Translators must make sure it does not appear the woman is Jesus’ mother-in-law. Mother-in-law is the meaning of the Greek word used here; there is no other meaning to the word, and all translations render it in this way. In 1 Corinthians 9.5 Peter’s wife is mentioned.

Lying sick (Good News Translation “sick in bed”) translates the same participial form used in 9.2. The participle literally means “having been thrown down” or “lying.” Here it is used without specification of the place where Peter’s mother-in-law was lying, but the obvious conclusion is that she was lying on a bed. In 9.2 the place is specifically indicated as being on a bed. New English Bible renders “in bed with fever.”

There has been some speculation regarding the nature of the fever, but the Greek text gives no hints, and the translation should not specify the nature of the fever.

There will be many quite natural ways to express lying sick with a fever. One can say “lying in bed with a fever” or “lying in bed because she had a fever.”

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 .