Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the disciples talking with each other).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 16:7:
Uma: “But they did not know the meaning of that figure-of-speech, they began talking among themselves, they said: ‘The reason he said like that is because we (incl.) did not remember to bring bread.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “His disciples talked about what he had said because they did not understand. They said, ‘Perhaps he spoke like that, because we did not bring any bread.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they did not understand that it was not the yeast of bread he was talking about, so they talked with each other saying, ‘The reason he said this is because we didn’t bring any bread.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Upon his saying that, they talked-together saying, ‘Jesus said that, because we have no bread for take-along-lunch.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When the disciples heard that, they said-among-themselves, ‘He spoke like that because we don’t have any bread with us.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The learners said to each other: ‘It must be that he said that to us because we didn’t bring any bread to eat.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
And they: it may be useful to identify they as “The disciples” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), since the last group of persons mentioned were “the Pharisees and Sadducees” of verse 6.
Discussed (Good News Translation “started discussing”) translates a verb which may mean “consider” or “reason (out something),” while the phrase among themselves may also mean “inwardly.”
What the disciples began discussing, represented by the pronoun it, may need to be made more definite. Translators can say “discussing what Jesus had said” or “… these words.”
We brought no bread will strike many readers as completely senseless, unless there is further qualification, and some translations indicate an awareness of the difficulty: “He says this because we didn’t bring any bread” (Good News Translation), “It is because we have not brought any bread” (New Jerusalem Bible), and “It is because we have brought no bread” (New English Bible). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch overcomes the problem by shifting to indirect discourse: “The disciples took this to refer to their forgetfulness.” Barclay also effectively utilizes indirect discourse: “They kept on talking among themselves about bringing no loaves.” In Moffatt the whole of verse 7 is translated “They argued among themselves, ‘But we have not brought any bread!’ ”
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 .
They discussed this among themselves and concluded: Verse 16:7b contains a description of what the disciples decided about Jesus’ words. In some languages, it may be good to make this more clear in 16:7a, as the Berean Standard Bible has done. Here are some other ways to say this:
began discussing it among themselves and concluded, saying
-or-
were discussing this among themselves and decided
discussed: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as discussed means “thought or reasoned carefully.” The tense of the Greek verb indicates that the disciples probably discussed Jesus’ words for a while.
Here are some other ways to translate this verb:
started discussing (Good News Translation)
-or-
were talking about
this: This word refers to what Jesus said in 16:6. Your translation of this word should clearly refer to Jesus’ words of 16:6.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
his words
-or-
that/that
16:7b
It is because we did not bring any bread: There are two ways to interpret the Greek word that connects 16:7a and 16:7b:
(1) It is a conjunction and means because. For example:
He says this because we didn’t bring any bread. (Good News Translation)
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New Living Translation (2004), New American Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, NET Bible, King James Version, New Century Version, New Revised Standard Version)
(2) It is a speech introducer and means that. In natural English, this word is not translated when it introduces direct speech. For example:
We brought no bread (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
that they had not taken any bread along (God’s Word)
(Revised Standard Version, God’s Word, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, Revised English Bible, English Standard Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). The majority of English versions follow this interpretation.
we: The disciples were talking among themselves, and they were not including Jesus when they used the pronoun we. If your language has an inclusive we and an exclusive we, use the inclusive we since they were not talking to Jesus.
bread: You should use the same word for bread here as you did in 16:5b.
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