Section 8:1–3

Some women helped Jesus and his disciples as they traveled

In this section Jesus traveled from town to town, telling people about the kingdom of God. His twelve disciples went with him. Some women who had been healed of various diseases or delivered from demons also traveled with them and provided money for their needs. The text does not specify exactly when Jesus and his followers began to travel, but 8:1 indicates that it was sometime after the events in the preceding section (7:36–50).

It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it. Some other possible headings for this section are:

Jesus and his disciples preach in different towns and women support them
-or-
Women Who Helped Jesus (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Jesus’ Ministry and the Help of Women (NET Bible)

Paragraph 8:1–3

8:1a

Soon afterward: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Soon afterward indicates that the events in the first few verses of chapter 8 happened after the events in chapter 7. The phrase is a general expression and does not necessarily mean “soon afterward.” Other ways to say this are:

Some time afterward (NET Bible)
-or-
After this (New International Version)
-or-
After these events

Jesus: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Jesus is literally “he.” It is natural in English and some other languages to use Jesus’ name here at the beginning of a new section. Refer to him here in a natural way in your language.

traveled from one town and village to another: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as traveled from one town and village to another indicates here that Jesus went to different cities, towns, and villages in the area. These towns or cities probably varied in size and in the number of people who lived in them. He went from one inhabited place to another without going back to any home place. Other ways to say this are:

began a tour of the nearby towns and villages (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
was traveling through some cities and small towns (New Century Version)
-or-
went journeying from town to town and village to village (Revised English Bible)
-or-
went around to many towns, both large and small

8:1b

preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God is more literally “preaching and telling good news of the kingdom of God.” Since the Greek verbs for “preaching” and “telling good news” refer to the same activity, some translations use only the verb “proclaiming.” Other ways to say this are:

proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God (New International Version)
-or-
he was preaching, telling people the Good News about God’s kingdom
-or-
he announced to people the good news about the kingdom of God

proclaiming: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible here translates as proclaiming means to tell people something important publicly.

Some other ways to translate proclaiming are:

announcing
-or-
telling people

the good news of the kingdom of God: The phrase the good news of the kingdom of God means “the good news concerning God’s kingdom/reign.” The phrase the kingdom of God refers to God’s activity of ruling and caring for his people as their king. It does not refer to a land or country that he rules. The term kingdom of God also occurs in 7:28b. Other ways to say this are:

the good news concerning God’s reign/rule
-or-
the sweet message about God’s chieftaincy

In some languages it may be necessary to translate kingdom with a verb and supply an object. If that is true in your language, some ways to translate it are:

the good/sweet news about God ruling ⌊his people⌋
-or-
the message/report that caused joy. This message was about God reigning ⌊over his people⌋

See also the note on 4:43a where the phrase the good news of the kingdom of God also occurs. See also kingdom of God, Context 4, in the Glossary.

8:1c

The Twelve: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as The Twelve refers to the twelve disciples whom Jesus chose to be apostles in 6:13–16. See apostle in the Glossary.

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.