Many translations drop And or render it with “Then.”

In some languages answered will only be used in a context where a question has been asked. “Said” is then more natural.

Blessed translates the same expression used in the Beatitudes; see comment in the introduction to 5.3-12. However, it may not be natural to render Blessed in the same way here. “You are indeed fortunate” may be possible, as long as it does not mean that Peter was lucky. A common translation is “Things are well with you, Simon son of John, because … it was revealed to you by my heavenly Father.”

Bar-Jona (so also Barclay) is a transliteration of the Greek, which is in turn a transliteration of the Aramaic meaning “son of Jonah” (New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Phillips, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition). The name is unexpected, since in John 1.42 Simon’s father is identified as John. One scholar notes that “despite the prophet of this name, there is no trace of ‘Jonah’ as a proper name in the centuries before and after Jesus,” and so he concludes, together with other scholars, that Jona is best understood as an abbreviation of “Johanan” (the equivalent of “John”); Good News Translation and Bible en français courant have “John.”

There will be languages where the vocative, Simon Bar-Jona, will more likely be at the beginning of Jesus’ words: “Simon son of John, things are well with you.”

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you: since flesh and blood is a Jewish way of referring to a human being in his totality, Barclay translates “for it was no human being who revealed this to you,” and New American Bible has “No mere man has revealed this to you.” It is quite possible that the expression intends to emphasize man as being subject to sickness and death, always limited in strength and knowledge, and so the basis for New English Bible: “You did not learn that from mortal man.” Moreover, it is quite possible that flesh and blood, as used here, refer specifically to Peter himself, in which case one may translate “You did not learn this on your own.” “You did not learn this by any human means” will actually allow for either of these interpretations.

Notice from these examples that revealed can be rendered by a passive (“has been revealed” or “has been taught”) or active (“no human revealed this to you” or “no one taught you”). Peter can even be the subject, as in “You did not learn.”

In the Greek sentence the verb revealed is not followed by an object, but English requires one, and translations have traditionally supplied this as the object. In place of this Good News Translation uses “this truth” and simultaneously adopts a structure in which the noun phrase becomes subject of the verb: “this truth did not come to.” In place of this one may also use “this information,” “this insight,” or “this understanding.”

But my Father who is in heaven: this is a literal rendering of the Greek text and assumes “has revealed it to you” of the previous clause. Thus New English Bible has “it was revealed to you by my heavenly Father,” and Good News Translation translates “but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven.” See discussion of the phrase at 5.16.

In heaven draws the contrast between God, whose realm and power are unlimited, with people, who are creatures of flesh and blood.

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 .