It is occasionally necessary to preface this verse with a phrase such as “Here is the question: the baptism of John…” or “So I ask you, the baptism of John….”

The baptism of John, whence was it?: in such a context baptism refers to the authority to baptize, and so the basis for Good News Translation: “Where did John’s right to baptize come from…?” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “From where did John the Baptist receive the authority to baptize?” A shift to the active voice may be better: “Who gave John the Baptist his authority to baptize?” or “… the right to baptize?” It can also be “When John baptized (people), who gave him the right to do it?”

From heaven or from men?: the noun heaven is a typical Jewish way of speaking of God without mentioning his name, and so Barclay translates “Was it divine or human?” (New American Bible “Was it divine or merely human?”). New English Bible is similar to Good News Translation: “was it from God, or from men?” Here also a shift to an active structure is possible: “Did God give him this authority or did some man give it to him?” or “… or did some human being give it to him?”

And they argued with one another: the imperfect tense of the verb argued can focus upon the beginning of the action, as in Good News Translation: “They started to argue among themselves.” This is also the interpretation of New English Bible (“This set them arguing among themselves”), Phillips (“At this they began arguing among themselves”), and Barclay (“They began to argue with each other”). The verb may also mean “think” or “reason,” which is the basis for New American Bible (“They thought to themselves”). However, the context definitely suggests an actual conversation carried on among the Jewish leaders.

The translation of From heaven in the argument the chief priests and elders had among themselves should be phrased as it was in Jesus’ question to them earlier in the verse. Of course, it may have to be expressed as a short sentence such as “If we say, ‘John’s authority came from God’ ” or “If we say that John’s authority came from God.”

Why then did you not believe him? may need to be restructured to say “Why, then, did you not believe John’s message?” or “… believe what John said?”

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 .