9:28a
Then they heaped insults on him: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translate as heaped insults here means “insulted” or “spoke in a way that abused.” The Jewish leaders told the healed man that they thought very badly of him. Here are other ways to translate this clause:
they abused him with their speech
-or-
The leaders insulted the man (Contemporary English Version)
9:28b
You are His disciple: The pronoun His refers to Jesus. The Jewish leaders did not use Jesus’ name or title, but instead referred to him in an insulting way. You may want to make this insulting tone more explicit. For example:
You are this fellow’s disciple (New International Version)
-or-
You are the disciple of that person!
disciple: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as disciple refers to a “learner” or “follower” of a religious teacher. See 9:2a and 9:27c.
9:28c
In Greek this clause begins with a conjunction that introduces a contrast. The leaders contrasted themselves to the man who had been healed. He, they said, was a disciple of Jesus, while they were disciples of Moses. They implied that it was only possible to be a disciple of one man: Jesus or Moses. They also implied that Moses was superior to Jesus. Here is a way to translate this conjunction:
but we are disciples of Moses (New Revised Standard Version)
we: The pronoun we is exclusive and refers to the Jewish leaders but not to the man who had been blind. The Greek text emphasizes the pronoun to contrast the Pharisees to the man who was born blind. Emphasize this pronoun in a way that is natural in your language. For example:
As for us, we (excl.)
disciples of Moses: This phrase refers to those who follow and learn from Moses. Moses lived about fifteen hundred (1500) years before Jesus. He gave Israel its law, recorded in the Old Testament books Genesis through Deuteronomy. The Jewish leaders said that they learned from and obeyed this law and in this way learned from and obeyed Moses. To avoid implying that Moses was still alive at that time, you may need to say something like this:
we follow/obey Moses’ ⌊law/teachings⌋
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