The question which John the Baptist raises about Jesus in verse 3 is appropriately placed at this position in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus himself has already performed a number of healing miracles, and he has commissioned his disciples both to continue this healing ministry and to preach the Good News. The question raised by John the Baptist thereby allows Matthew the opportunity of making explicit the meaning of Jesus’ words and deeds: they affirm that Jesus is the Promised Messiah.

Now indicates a new topic is starting. It must not be misunderstood to mean “At this moment.” Translators can say “It happened then” or “At that time,” or it may be more natural to drop it.

John is identified by Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as “John the Baptist.” Most translators do this, in fact, because otherwise many readers who are not very familiar with the Bible would not guess which John was being referred to. For comments on “John the Baptist,” see 3.1.

Matthew has much earlier informed his readers of John’s imprisonment, but it is not until 14.3-4 that he states the reason why it was done. Here Matthew is not concerned with the why of John’s imprisonment, but rather with using his question as a means of having Jesus clarify that his actions are Messianic deeds, and that he is therefore the Promised One.

The phrase in prison may need to be rendered by a relative clause such as “… John, who was in prison at that time.”

It may be natural to say simply John heard. Some languages require an agent, as in “heard people tell about” or “heard from people about.” Another way is “People told John about the things that Christ was doing. When John heard these things….”

Deeds may need to be altered to a verb structure; see Good News Translation: (“the things that … was doing”), New Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible (“what … was doing”), and New American Bible (“the works … was performing”).

The Christ (so also Moffatt, Bible en français courant, Bible de Jérusalem, An American Translation), the Greek equivalent of “the Messiah,” is translated by many as a proper name, “Christ” (New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Phillips, New American Bible, Luther 1984, Zürcher Bibel). Both Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition (“Jesus Christ”) and Bijbel in Gewone Taal (“Jesus”) add their support to the interpretation of the phrase as a proper name, and some Greek manuscripts read “Jesus” in place of “the Christ.” Either interpretation (“the Christ” or “Christ”) may be arrived at from the best Greek manuscripts, which do possess the definite article. The fundamental question concerns Matthew’s intention in mentioning the name, and it is more natural to assume that he is here demanding the same decision from his readers as Jesus is demanding from John. To read the deeds of the Christ would prejudice the decision; each reader must decide whether these “deeds of Christ” are indeed those of the Messiah. Thus “Christ” or “Jesus Christ” would probably fit the passage better.

His disciples: Matthew does not specify the number of John’s disciples who were sent to Jesus; the parallel in Luke 7.18 specifies a small contingent of two disciples. There is no reason to translate John’s disciples any differently from those of Jesus. See comments on 9.14. Many translations will say “some of his disciples,” since his disciples may seem to mean all of them.

Sent word can be rendered in several ways; for example, “sent some of his disciples to ask,” or “sent some of his disciples to Jesus. They asked him…,” or “He asked some of his disciples to go to Jesus to find out about him.”

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 .