“Don’t you know that I could” of Good News Translation (New American Bible “Do you not suppose I can”) is a simplification of the Greek sentence construction, which places the negative in a position which is difficult for English speakers: Do you think that I cannot. It is possible to achieve still further simplification by transforming the rhetorical question into a statement: “I could call on my Father for help, and…” or even “Do not forget that I could….”

Appeal to (so also New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible) sounds rather formal and is somewhat high-level English. Good News Translation has “call on … for help.” The same verb is used in 8.5, where Revised Standard Version translates “beseeching” (see comment there).

In order to convey the notion of help, several translations supplement send me: “to my defence” (New Jerusalem Bible), “to my aid” (New English Bible), and “to defend me” (Phillips). In the Good News Translation restructuring it is immediately clear that the function of the angels is to provide help (“I could call on my Father for help”).

Legions (Good News Translation “armies”) is the transliteration of the plural form of the Greek noun “legion,” which referred to a unit of the Roman army. At the time of Caesar Augustus, a “legion” numbered about six thousand soldiers, not including the auxiliary troops, which were generally of approximately equal number. Most English speakers do not know what is meant by a “legion,” though persons familiar with military terminology will understand “twelve regiments of angels” (Barclay). The intention of the expression is to suggest a vast number of angels, sufficient to defend Jesus against all of his enemies. In fact, many translators have to say simply “twelve groups of angels to fight” or “twelve large fighting groups of angels.”

For angels see discussion at 1.20.

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 .