Jesus now focuses on the people of his day and contrasts their response to John’s message with the injunction of verse 15 to pay attention. The text has But, and Good News Translation has “Now.” Other possibilities include “As for the people of this day” and “But the people of this day, what can I say about them?”

Compare is frequently used to introduce parables. See comments on 13.24. It may be necessary to make a shift away from the question form: “I know what the people of this day are like. They are like children….” If a question is retained, the sentence can be “What are the people of this day like? They are like…” or “What can I say about the people of today? I tell you, they are like….”

This generation is translated “the people of this day” by Good News Translation. In mind are the contemporaries of John and Jesus who had the opportunity to hear their messages, but had rejected them both. An American Translation has “this present age”; New American Bible‘s “this breed” lends a negative coloring to the address. “People today” and “people these days” are better renderings.

The precise situation described in the parable (verses 16b-17) is not clear. It may be that the children are quarreling with one another because some of them want to play wedding (a happy game) while others want to play funeral (a sad game). Their playmates would then be children within the same group. This interpretation is the one followed in Luke 7.32, where the children call “to one another.” However, Matthew here uses a different construction (literally “to the others”), which intimates a second group of children. The situation in Matthew seems then to be that of one group of children trying to get another group to play games with them. First, they play happy wedding songs on their small flutes, but they cannot get the other group of children to dance while they play. Then they sing funeral songs, but they cannot get the other children to respond by crying. So the disagreement does not concern what game is to be played, but rather that one group refuses to play either game.

Some scholars who accept this interpretation find a key to its application in the participle sitting. For them, the children sitting in the marketplace represent the Pharisees and the other religious leaders who sit and give orders. Then they criticize everyone who refuses to obey their orders: John is criticized because he fasts when they want to play wedding games, and Jesus is criticized because he joyfully associates with outcasts, while they want to play funeral games. But this application of the parable is not as attractive as that which sees in John the one who calls people to play funeral, while Jesus is the one who calls people to play wedding. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders refuse to respond to either call.

It is like introduces the parable, It referring to the singular form this generation. Translators who have used “people” will put this in the plural: “They are like.”

Like children should not imply that the people are immature or childish. The real comparison is between one group who wants to do something and another group who refuses to do it. The first group says, “Let’s play…”; the response is always “We don’t want to.”

In many cultures market places are a feature of daily life and can be retained in the translation. In others “the streets,” “the parks,” or in some countries the area of the market called “the playgrounds” would be more likely as places where children would go to play.

To their playmates (so also Moffatt, New American Bible), as indicated in a previous paragraph, is literally “to the others.” Phillips has “to their friends,” and Good News Translation “One group shouts to the other.” The advantage of Good News Bible is that it clearly distinguishes between the two groups.

However, in some languages, to make two sentences as Good News Translation does can also leave the first sentence sounding as if the people are like children, that is, childish. In such cases translators can add “certain,” as in “they are like certain children sitting in the marketplace. One group…,” or they can say “They are like a group of children sitting in the market place who call out to another group….”

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 .