And marks the transition to a new episode but does link it temporally. “Next” or “After that” will indicate this too.

He: since this verse opens a new section, Good News Translation introduces Jesus by name.

Went on from there is translated “left that place” by Good News Translation and New American Bible. New Jerusalem Bible and Barclay have “moved on from there.” Since there is not identified, it can easily be dropped, as in “After that he went to their synagogue.” It depends on the demands of the receptor language.

The text has went … and entered. Good News Translation does not specify that Jesus went into the synagogue, although that is probably understood. Again, translators should do whatever is natural.

Their synagogue has the wording “the synagogue” in Mark 6.2 and Luke 6.6. Most translations retain their, which may be Matthew’s way of disassociating both Jesus and the Christian community of his own day from the Jewish community. If readers will not know who their refers to, then translators can put “the synagogue of the Jews at that place.”

For comments on synagogue, see 4.23.

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 .