Beware of (so also New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible) translates a verb first used in 6.1; the verb is also used in 10.17; 16.6, 11, 12. Good News Translation and New American Bible have “Be on your guard against,” and Barclay has “Be continually on your guard against.” This can also be rendered “Watch out for” or “Be very careful to look for.”
False prophets represents the rendering of most translations; Phillips has “false religious teachers.” It is important to note that the reference is not to the Pharisees or to any other group of outsiders, but to “false Christian prophets,” as is indicated by 24.11, 24. This interpretation of the text is also supported by the observation that the false prophets have the appearance of sheep, a figure used of God’s people in the Old Testament. Matthew is stating that the Christian community of his day must be on guard against people from their own midst who have the appearance of speaking God’s message to them, but in reality are ravenous wolves.
For false prophets, translators have said “people who pretend to be prophets (of God) but aren’t” or “people who say they proclaim God’s word, but don’t really.” For prophet see comments on 1.22.
Inwardly are ravenous wolves, a metaphor in the Greek text, is translated as a simile by Good News Translation: “but on the inside they are really like wild wolves.”
Ravenous (Good News Translation “wild”) in Greek means “greedy,” “preying.” It describes wolves as waiting to attack the flock and steal a lamb or a sheep. Note “savage” of New English Bible. Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition translates the clause “They look as harmless as sheep, but in reality they are wild wolves.”
This rendering of Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition can be a helpful model for translators. The sentence who come to you in sheep’s clothing should not be translated literally. It does not refer to someone wearing clothing belonging to a sheep or wearing sheepskin as clothing, but rather to someone who appears harmless and guileless like a sheep does. There are cultures where people do not necessarily associate ideas like guileless or harmless with sheep, nor the ideas of weakness or meekness. (Often sheep are only seen as stupid, for example.) In these cases it is certainly necessary to make one of the components, either harmless or guileless, explicit. The translation can be “looking as harmless as a sheep” or “pretending to be harmless like a sheep.” It may be possible, although less forceful as a translation, to say simply “appear to be harmless (or, meek).”
The same is true of ravenous wolves. Translators may have “they are destructive like wolves” or simply “they are destructive.” Inwardly can be expressed as “in fact,” “in reality,” or “the way they really are.”
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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