You will be hated by all is altered to an active construction by Good News Translation: “Everyone will hate you.” New English Bible is similar: “All will hate you.” Phillips avoids the use of “all” by translating “You yourselves will be universally hated” (Barclay “You will be universally hated”). Both Phillips and Barclay are rather sophisticated, and the adverb “universally” may imply more than is intended in the original.

For my name’s sake is translated “because of me” by Good News Translation, since in Jewish thought a person’s name stands for the person himself. The meaning is probably identical with “for my sake” of verse 18. New English Bible translates “for your allegiance to me”; An American Translation has “on my account” (New American Bible “on account of me”); Barclay translates “because of your connection with me.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch shifts to a verb structure: “because you acknowledge me.” As in verse 18, it may also be “because you are my followers.”

But he who endures to the end will be saved occurs two other times in the New Testament; in Matthew 24.13 and Mark 13.13 the Greek wording is the same as here. To say the least, the saying is difficult to interpret, although the meaning of the first verb itself is obvious. It is consistently rendered either endures or “holds out” (Good News Translation, Moffatt, An American Translation, New English Bible, New American Bible) by most translations, and elsewhere in the New Testament it occurs in contexts of suffering, persecution, and temptation (for example, Rom 12.12; 1 Cor 13.7; Heb 10.32; 12.3; James 1.12; 1 Peter 2.20).

He may be “the person” or “those people,” whichever is more natural.

Some common ways to translate endures in this context are “remains faithful (to me),” “continues to trust in me,” “stays strong in his faith (in me),” and “doesn’t stop serving me.”

In Greek to the end lacks the definite article the and so may be understood adverbially: “finally,” “fully,” “altogether.” In the context the meaning could then be expressed “without giving up” or “without denying one’s faith,” but this interpretation does not find favorable support among the scholars. Most scholars prefer the meaning to the end (“to the very end” [An American Translation, Moffatt, Phillips]), with the time reference being the end of persecution. One can then translate “whoever holds out until the persecution comes to an end…” or, in order to relate this to the previous sentence, “whoever remains faithful to me until the persecution comes to an end….” So as not to refer to any one incident of persecution, this may need to be “until this period of persecution comes to an end.”

Will be saved is also possible to interpret in more than one way. Some scholars take this as a reference to physical safety with the sense “will be brought safely through the period of persecution” (see New American Bible “will escape death” and Phillips “will be safe and sound”). But most scholars seem to prefer to interpret will be saved of the believer’s salvation. If the passive construction is impossible, then the clause may require considerable restructuring: “But if you remain faithful to me through all the persecution, then God will save you” or “… will save your soul.” This shift to a second person subject may be required in some languages, especially since verse 22a and verse 23 are both in the second person. Such a shift is normal in Hebrew as well as in the Greek of the New Testament, which often follows Hebrew patterns. But for most languages it is jarring to shift between a second and a third person subject when referring to the same individual.

The agent, God, in the expression will be saved can also be placed first in the sentence, as in “but God will save those of you who remain faithful to me until the persecution comes to an end.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .