Paragraph 18:23–25
18:23a
But when the ruler heard this, he became very sad: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as when the ruler heard this is literally “having-heard these things.” As in 18:22a, in some languages it may not be natural to say the ruler heard here because it is already obvious from the context. If that is true in your language, you may leave it implied. You may also choose not to translate the Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as But. For example:
These words caused him to feel very sad
-or-
Jesus’ response/answer made him very sad
-or-
When/After Jesus said that, he was very sad
he became very sad: The words very sad here indicate that he was distressed and grieved. The man was sad because he did not want to give away what he owned. He thought that it was too hard to do what Jesus had said.
In some languages there may be an idiom to express this. For example:
his heart sank (Revised English Bible)
18:23b
because he was extremely wealthy: The conjunction because introduces the reason why the ruler felt sad. However, there is some implied information here. The man did not want to sell all that he had because he loved his possessions. In some languages it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example:
because ⌊he did not want to give away⌋ his great wealth
-or-
because ⌊it was hard for him to think of selling⌋ his many valuable possessions
he was extremely wealthy: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as he was extremely wealthy indicates that he owned many valuable things. These may have included houses, land, and animals as well as other possessions. Other ways to translate this are:
he was very rich (God’s Word)
-or-
he had many possessions
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