Paragraph 4:40–41

4:40a

At sunset: The phrase At sunset refers to sundown. It was about six o’clock in the evening. This was the time when the Sabbath day ended and the first day of the week began. Some other ways to translate this are:

When the sun went down (New Century Version)
-or-
After sunset (Good News Translation)

The Jewish law did not allow people to work on the Sabbath, and Jews considered carrying a sick person to be work. So they waited until the Sabbath ended to do this.

You may want to make explicit that this was the end of the Jewish Sabbath. For example:

⌊As the Sabbath day was ending⌋ at sunset

You may instead decide to make this clearer by including a footnote here. For example:

At sunset, the Jews considered the day to end and another day to begin.
-or-
At sunset, the Sabbath Day ended. These people had not brought their sick relatives/friends to Jesus earlier, because they did not want to break Jewish rules. These rules prohibited work on the Sabbath, and they considered carrying sick people to Jesus to be work.

4:40b

all who were ill with various diseases were brought to Jesus: This clause is active in Greek. It says literally “All who had sick ones with various diseases brought them to him.” For example:

all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him (Revised Standard Version)

The Greek text does not explicitly state the relationship between the “sick ones” and those who brought them to Jesus. It says literally, “All who had sick ones….” Here, the word “had” probably refers to the fact that they took care of these sick people. So these “sick ones” were probably relatives or close friends who were sick.

Some ways to translate this are:

all who had friends who were sick with various diseases brought them to Jesus (Good News Translation)
-or-
people throughout the village brought sick family members to Jesus (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
people brought those who were sick to Jesus (New Century Version)

all: In Greek, the word all actually refers to all the people who were well and who had sick relatives or friends. For example:

all those who had any relatives sick with various diseases (NET Bible)

The Berean Standard Bible has used the word all to refer to those who were sick. This is a different way to express the same meaning. Translate this in the way that is most natural in your language.

who were ill with various diseases: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as ill with various diseases does not mean that each sick person had many diseases. It means that among them, the sick people had different types of disease. Some English versions combine “sick ones” and “various diseases” into one phrase. Some other ways to translate this are:

people with all kinds of diseases (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
friends ill with diseases of one kind or another (Revised English Bible)
-or-
friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another (New Jerusalem Bible)

4:40c

laying His hands on each one, He healed them: The clause laying His hands on each one means that Jesus touched each person as he healed them. He often touched people when he healed them.

The text does not say that they were healed because he touched them or by him touching them. So it is recommended that you say that “he laid his hands on each one and healed them.” For example:

he placed his hands on every one of them and healed them all (Good News Translation)

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