For what will it profit … and forfeits his life? is a rhetorical question which expects the answer “Nothing.” Therefore Good News Translation restructures the question, “Will a person gain anything if he wins the whole world but loses his life?” and follows it with the answer “Of course not!” In other languages it may be necessary to say “For a person certainly won’t gain anything at all if he wins the whole world but loses his life” or “For it is certainly of no value if, in winning the whole world, a person loses his life.” In some languages “obtain” may be better than “win.”

Man, as with “any man” in verse 24, refers to people in general, and so is equivalent to “person” (Good News Translation).

Or what shall a man give in return for his life? is also a rhetorical question which expects the answer “Nothing.” This time Good News Translation restructures it as a statement: “There is nothing he can give to regain his life.” Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation seem to interpret life of this sentence as a person’s physical life here on earth, an interpretation which is apparently supported by New American Bible: “What profit would a man show if he were to gain the whole world and destroy himself in the process? What can a man offer in exchange for his very self?” New English Bible seems to have a more psychological understanding: “What will a man gain by winning the whole world, at the cost of his true self? Or what can he give that will buy that self back?” However, it is more probable that the reference is to eternal life, which would be the basis for Moffatt‘s shift from “life” in verse 25 to “soul” in this verse: “What profit will it be if a man gains the whole world and forfeits his own soul?” New International Version makes this same shift.

Many translators will use the same expression for life as they did in the previous verse, such as “true life” or “life that does not end.”

For a person to gain the whole world does not mean to rule the world. It means to have “everything in the world,” or possibly “everything he wants.”

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 .