6:47a

When evening came: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as When evening came indicates that it was probably between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. The sun had probably already gone down.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

Later that evening (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
That night (New Century Version)

The word evening also occurs in 1:32a.

the boat was in the middle of the sea: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as middle indicates that the boat was far away from the shore.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

the boat was far out on the sea (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
the boat was somewhere in the middle of the lake (Contemporary English Version)

In some languages, it will be more natural to indicate that the disciples were in the boat. For example, the New Living Translation says:

the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake

6:47b

and Jesus was alone on land: There is a contrast between Jesus being on land and the disciples being in the boat. Some English versions indicate this contrast with the word “while.” For example, the Good News Bible says:

while Jesus was alone on land

In some languages, there may be a special way to indicate this kind of contrast. For example:

and/but as for Jesus, he was alone on the land

on land: Jesus was on land, but not on the shore. He was still up on the mountain (6:46b). In some languages, a literal translation of on land may imply that Jesus was at the shore of the lake and was no longer on the mountainside. If that is true in your language, you may want to indicate Jesus’ location more specifically. For example:

and as for Jesus, he was still on the mountain, alone

General Comment on 6:47a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to change the order of 6:47a and 6:47b. In this way, the parts of 6:46 and 6:47 that are about Jesus can be together. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:

46b…and [Jesus] went up on the side of a mountain to pray. 47aLater that evening 47bhe was still there by himself, and 47athe boat was somewhere in the middle of the lake.

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