13:37a

And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Here Jesus returned to the main theme of the paragraph. The main theme is the need to watch, stay ready, and do the tasks that the master has assigned, until he returns.

you: The pronoun you is plural. It refers to the four disciples mentioned in 13:3: Peter, James, John, and Andrew. In some languages it may be necessary to indicate this. For example:

That which I say to you disciples

I say to everyone: The Greek pronoun that the Berean Standard Bible translates as everyone can also be translated as “all,” as in the Revised Standard Version. This word refers to all present and future disciples of Jesus. You could say:

I say to all my disciples

In the Greek, the word everyone is emphasized. To emphasize it, you could add the word “everywhere.” For example:

I say to all my disciples everywhere
-or-
it is not just to you that I say it, I say it to all my disciples

13:37b

Keep watch!: The form of the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Keep watch! indicates that the activity does is not an activity that happens once. The disciples should continually expect the return of Jesus from heaven. They should always be ready for him. You may need to make more of this meaning explicit. For example:

Watch(plur) continually.
-or-
Be alert(plur) constantly for my return from heaven!

Paragraph 14:1–2

14:1a

Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were two days away: This clause gives the time setting for the next events. It indicates that the events in the following verses happened two days before the Passover and the Feast began. This kind of background information can be introduced in various ways. For example:

It was two days before the Passover and the Feast… (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
Two days were still lacking until the Jews celebrated the Passover and the Feast…

Introduce this background information in a way that is natural in your language.

the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread: The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread refer to two important feasts or festivals that the Jews celebrated once every year. The Jews ate a special Passover meal on the same evening that they started celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For this reason, many people considered these two festivals to be a single combined festival.

In translating these festivals, you may:

• Make explicit that there were two festivals. For example:

the festival called Passover and the festival called Unleavened Bread

• Use a combined term. For example:

the Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread (Good News Bible)

the Passover: Passover is the name of a Jewish festival. It celebrates the time that God’s angel passed over/by the houses of the Jews without harming them. See the suggested footnote below for more details.

Here are some other ways to translate Passover:

the Passover festival/celebration
-or-
festival called Passed-By and left safe
-or-
“Death did not harm us” feast

You may want to include a footnote and cross-reference here about this feast. For example:

The Feast of Passover was a festival that reminded the Jews of the time when God freed their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. See Exodus 12:1–27.

the Feast of Unleavened Bread: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the Feast of Unleavened Bread is literally “unleavened bread.” The Berean Standard Bible has supplied the words the Feast of. As mentioned above, you should indicate in a natural way in your language that Unleavened Bread is the name of another Jewish feast.

The term Unleavened Bread refers to a festival that the Jews celebrated each year for seven days. During these days they ate unleavened bread. (Unleavened bread is thin, flat bread made without yeast. Yeast is what causes bread to rise.)

When God delivered the Jews’ ancestors from Egypt, they had to leave very quickly. They did not have time to make their bread with yeast and wait until it rose. The purpose of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to help the Jews remember this and thank God for what he had done for them. You may want to put some of this background information in a footnote or glossary entry to help your readers understand more about this feast.

Here are some other possible ways to translate this:

Feast of bread made without yeast
-or-
Feast of bread made without raising-agent
-or-
Feast when people eat bread with no yeast

See how you translated “leaven” in 8:15.

14:1b

the chief priests: A Jewish priest was a man who offered sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. He also performed other rituals for them. The phrase the chief priests refers to the leaders among these priests.

Here are some other ways to translate the chief priests:

the leading/ruling priests
-or-
the elders among the Jewish sacrificers
-or-
the most prominent priests

The term chief priests first occurs in Mark in 8:31c.

scribes: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as scribes is sometimes translated as “teachers of the law” (as in the New International Version). The original work of these men was to copy the laws of Moses by hand. In New Testament times, their main task was to study, interpret, and teach the law of Moses and related Jewish laws and traditions.

Here are some other ways to translate this term:

teachers of the Law of Moses (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
teachers of religious law (New Living Translation)
-or-
the experts on the law
-or-
people who teach the law of the Jews

See how you translated this term in 12:38b. Also, see teacher of the law in the Glossary for more information.

14:1c

were looking for a covert way to arrest Jesus: The words were looking for a covert way to arrest Jesus indicate that the Jewish leaders were trying to think of a plan to arrest Jesus secretly. They did not want other people to know about they planned to do.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

discussing how they might arrest Jesus in secret and kill him
-or-
were trying to find a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him (NET Bible)

arrest: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as arrest means “seize,” “capture,” or “take away to trial or punishment.”

14:1d

and kill Him: The Jewish leaders did not plan to kill Jesus themselves. They wanted the Romans to execute Jesus in the way that Romans executed criminals.

Here are some other ways to show this in your translation:

and have him put to death (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
and cause him to be executed

General Comment on 14:1a–d

In some languages it may be helpful to break 14:1 into two sentences. For example:

It was two days before the Feast of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for a secret way to seize Jesus and have him killed.

© 2008 by SIL International®

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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