Section 9:30–32

Jesus predicted his death a second time

In 8:31 Jesus told his disciples that his enemies would kill him and that God would cause him to live again. Here in 9:30–32, Jesus told his disciples the same thing again. But they still did not understand what he was talking about.

It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

Jesus again predicted that he would die and come back to life
-or-
Death and resurrection foretold a second time
-or-
Jesus again tells his disciples that he will be killed but then God will raise him from the dead

There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 17:22–23 and Luke 9:43–45.

Paragraph 9:30–32

9:30a

The story in 9:30–32 began sometime after the story in 9:14–29 ended. The Greek text does not indicate how much time passed between these two stories. In some languages, it is natural to begin a story with a time word or phrase. If your language is like that, use an expression here that is not too specific. For example:

Then (New Century Version)
-or-
After that

In other languages, a time word or phrase is not necessary. Introduce this story in a natural way in your language.

Going on from there: The phrase Going on from there refers to Jesus and his discplines traveling away from the place where they were in the preceding story. This could be specifically the house where Jesus was (9:28) or the general area at the base of the mountain (9:9, 14). You should translate the words there in a way that refers generally to the preceding story. For example:

where they were
-or-
that region (New Living Translation)

9:30b

they passed through Galilee: The words they passed through Galilee give the setting for the events in 9:30–32. The Greek tense indicates that the events in 9:30–32 happened while they were passing through Galilee, not after they passed through. You should make this clear in your translation. For example:

and began to go through Galilee (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
and were traveling through Galilee

they: The word they refers to Jesus and his disciples. If you started a new section here, you may want to make “Jesus and his disciples” explicit instead of using the pronoun They.

Galilee: Galilee was a region, district, or province in the northern part of the country of Israel. If you need to make clear the kind of place Galilee was, see how you translated the word Galilee in 1:9a.

The word Galilee also occurs in 1:14b, 1:16a, 1:28, 1:39a, 3:7b, 6:21b, and 7:31b. Consider if it is necessary to continue to say explicitly that Galilee was a region or district.

9:30c

But Jesus did not want anyone to know: It might be more natural in your language to have the negative in the know clause instead of in the want clause. For example:

Jesus wanted no one to know where they were.

anyone: The word anyone refers to people other than the disciples. It may be natural to translate this as:

anyone else

to know: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as to know means that Jesus wanted no one to know his exact location.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

to know it (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
to know where they were going

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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