The Son of man came eating and drinking: see 8.20 for a discussion of Son of man. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch handles this part of the verse similarly to what it did with the first part of verse 18: “The Son of man eats and drinks….”
Eating and drinking, as the context makes clear, means something beyond the ordinary meals required for existence. The allusion is perhaps to Jesus’ participation in joyous events such as wedding celebrations, where food and drink were consumed in larger amounts than at a regular mealtime. But Barclay has “enjoying life like a normal person,” which is also possible. Since the expression eating and drinking here can refer to more than just sustenance, translators have tried “When the Son of man came, he enjoyed eating and drinking (wine),” “… ate and drank with great enjoyment,” or “… ate and drank well.”
Again, they can be “people.”
Behold: see comments at 1.20. Good News Translation has “Look at this man,” Phillips “Look,” An American Translation and New English Bible “Look at him!”
A glutton is someone who overindulges in eating; a drunkard is someone who overindulges in wine (Good News Translation “wine-drinker”). This may well be how the phrase will be rendered: “He eats too much and drinks too much wine” or “He is always eating too much food and drinking too much wine.”
Tax collectors and sinners (Good News Translation “… other outcasts”) are mentioned together in 9.10; tax collectors are first discussed in 5.46. New American Bible renders sinners by “those outside the Law,” and Barclay “people with whom no respectable Jew would have anything to do!” Translators are referred to 9.10 and 5.46 for possible translations.
Quite often translators will have to repeat the subject, as in “and he is a friend of tax collectors and other outcasts.”
As in the previous verse, the accusations may have to be in indirect speech: “People look at him and remark that he eats too much and drinks wine too much, and also that he is a friend of tax collectors and other outcasts.”
Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds: this statement is obscure, and it is not aided by the alternative reading (see RSV footnote), which substitutes “children” (as in the Lukan parallel, 7.35) for deeds. Scholars agree that the wisdom is “God’s wisdom,” and so the basis for Good News Translation. Both deeds and “children” would have a similar impact to the Jewish reader, since either would convey the idea of what wisdom had produced (Good News Translation, New English Bible, Barclay “by its results”; Moffatt “by all that she does”; An American Translation, Jerusalem Bible “by her actions”).
Justified translates the same verb used in 12.37, the only other occurrence of this verb in Matthew. A noun made from this stem is discussed in 1.19. The verb itself is quite frequently employed by Paul with the meaning “be put right with God,” which is obviously not what Matthew intends. Here the meaning is rather “be proved right” (see Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible) or “be vindicated” (An American Translation, Moffatt; Phillips: “stands or fails”).
Some languages will be able to use a passive or impersonal form, as in “God’s wisdom can be proved to be true by its results” or “The wisdom of God will produce results that show it is right.” Other languages will have an agent, as in “People will see God’s wisdom is right by the results” or “People will see that God’s wisdom is right by the way people act when they have it.”
The word Yet does show a contrast with what people are saying about the Son of Man. “But,” or “However,” or some other contrastive marker should be used here.
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 .
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