He is identified as “Jesus” by Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. The choice between a pronoun and a proper name will depend upon the expectations of the receptor language.

Are you also still without understanding? is in the form of a rhetorical question with the adverb still in emphatic position. Good News Translation shifts to a statement: “You are still no more intelligent than the others.” The contrast is between Jesus’ disciples and the rest of the people, not between Peter and the remaining disciples, as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation might be interpreted to suggest. In the Greek sentence the pronoun you (plural) is explicitly employed, thus intimating that it also is emphatic. It is possible to translate “You, my own disciples, are still….”

Without understanding (an adjective in Greek) is translated “no more intelligent than” by Good News Translation. In some translations there is a very effective shift to a verb construction: “unable to understand” (Barclay), “not … yet understand” (Jerusalem Bible), and “incapable of understanding” (New American Bible). Elsewhere in the New Testament this adjective is used only in Mark 7.18; Romans 1.21, 31; 10.19.

The rhetorical question and the use of without understanding make Jesus’ response quite harsh. Translators may say “You are my disciples, and you are still so unintelligent,” “How can you, my own disciples, be so stupid?” or “You are my disciples, but you still have as little understanding as they.”

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 .