The Greek phrase John uses for branches of palm trees is redundant, but its meaning is clear. The question has been raised whether there was an abundance of palm trees in Jerusalem. In modern times, palm branches are brought in from the region around Jericho for the celebration of Palm Sunday in Jerusalem. However, some palms do grow in the region of Jerusalem, and the question of how many there were in New Testament times is not important as far as translation is concerned. In translating they took branches of palm trees one must assume that they “cut off branches of palm trees.” A literal translation might imply that they simply picked up branches of palm trees which were discarded along the road.

Praise God! translates the meaning of an Aramaic phrase, which is transliterated “Hosanna” in many translations. A literal translation would be “Save—please!” In general “Hosanna” was a prayer for help. During the Festival of Shelters it was a prayer for rain. But here the term is better taken to indicate praise rather than petition. Goodspeed renders “Bless him!” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Bible en français courant render in the same way as Good News Translation. Praise God! cannot be translated literally in some languages, since it would mean only that the speakers were commanding others to praise God. In some languages the closest equivalent would be “Let us praise God” or “God deserves our praise.” In some languages, however, instead of using a verb meaning “praise,” it is better to indicate the content of the praise, namely, “God is wonderful!”

God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord is more literally “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” However, the blessing referred to or appealed for comes from God, and Good News Translation makes this explicit. The words come from Psalm 118.26, and the meaning of the Hebrew is evidently “Blessed in the Lord’s name is the one who comes.” In the original setting of the Psalm, the reference was to the pilgrims who came to the Temple to worship, but the meaning for John is obviously different. According to John’s Gospel, the one who comes in the name of the Lord is Jesus.

The third person imperative in God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! is essentially a type of request or prayer, and it must be expressed as such in certain languages, for example, “We pray that God will bless him….”

There is, however, a problem involved in the clause who comes in the name of the Lord. If in this context “Lord” refers to Jesus Christ, the request will seem to be for God to bless someone who has come representing Jesus. However, the blessing is requested for Jesus himself and this meaning makes the term Lord equivalent to God. One may translate in many languages “We pray that God will bless the one that comes in his name,” that is, in the sense of “in God’s name.” In some languages, however, the expression “in his name” has no real meaning, and one must translate “We pray that God will bless the one who comes representing him” or “… comes as his representative” or “… as his messenger.”

God bless the King of Israel is literally, “even the king of Israel.” But the force of the Greek structure is to equate him who comes in the name of the Lord with the King of Israel, and Good News Translation does this explicitly. This slight restructuring also makes the elements of praise in this verse emphatic. By breaking the sentence into two parts and introducing each part with God bless, the meaning is made clearer, and the staccato style is more in keeping with spontaneous utterances of praise. (For Jesus as the King of Israel, see 1.49. See comments at 14.13 for a discussion of “in my name.”)

It may sometimes be best to translate the King of Israel “the one who will rule over Israel,” since Jesus was not at that time actually ruling over Israel. King must often be translated by a verb “to rule” rather than by a noun designating a particular kind of ruler.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .