10:52a

Go: Jesus said Go in order to tell the man that he was free to leave, because his request had been granted. Be careful not to translate this in a way that sounds as if Jesus was rejecting the man.

said Jesus: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as said Jesus is literally “and Jesus said to him.” In Greek this phrase occurs at the beginning of this verse. Translate it in a natural way and place it where it is natural in your language.

your faith has healed you: This clause contains a figure of speech. The abstract noun faith is spoken of as if it performed an action. This expression means here that Jesus had healed the man’s blindness because of his faith.

The noun faith refers here to the action of believing and trusting Jesus. Your faith has healed you implies that the blind man believed that Jesus would heal him. In some languages, it may be more natural to translate faith as a verb. If that is true in your language, you may also need to make explicit who or what was believed.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

Your eyes are healed because of your faith. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
…you are healed because you believed. (New Century Version)
-or-
You trusted in me and that has healed you.
-or-
You are well because you believed that I could heal you.

See 5:34a, where the same Greek phrase occurs. See also believe, Meaning 3, in the Glossary.

10:52b

And immediately: In this context immediately means as soon as Jesus spoke the words in 10:52a.

he received his sight: The phrase he received his sight means “the blind man became able to see.”

10:52c

and followed Jesus along the road: The blind man began to walk along the road to Jerusalem with Jesus and the rest of the crowd. The verb followed may also imply that he became one of Jesus’ disciples.

In some languages it may be more natural to make the phrase along the road implicit. It may also be more natural to make explicit that Bartimaeus was following Jesus along with others. For example:

and he joined the others who were following Jesus

Paragraph 11:1–7

11:1a–b

The clause in 11:1a–b is background information. It introduces the main action in 11:1c. See the General Comment on 11:1a–b below for ways to translate this background information.

As they approached Jerusalem: The words As they approached Jerusalem connect the story in this paragraph with the preceding story. In 10:46 Jesus and his disciples, along with a crowd of people, left Jericho. They walked along the road from Jericho and were now getting close to the city of Jerusalem.

Here is another way to translate this:

As Jesus and his followers were coming closer to Jerusalem (New Century Version)

they: Since this is a new section, you may need to identify the pronoun they as “Jesus and his disciples.”

11:1b

came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives: Bethphage and Bethany were the names of two small towns/villages. In Jesus’ time they may both have had fewer than two hundred inhabitants.

In this context the words came to probably indicate that Jesus and the others were approaching one of these two towns. They had not yet entered these towns. In some languages, this information may need to be made explicit. For example, the Good News Bible says:

near the towns of Bethphage and Bethany

These towns were near Jerusalem and on the side of the Mount of Olives. So they can be described as near the top of the Mount of Olives or at/on the side of the Mount of Olives. For example, the New Jerusalem Bible says:

they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of Olives

It might be helpful to include a footnote here in your translation. For example:

Bethphage and Bethany are villages on the side of the Mount of Olives. They are closer than two miles to Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives is east of Jerusalem.

the Mount of Olives:The phrase the Mount of Olives names a hill on the east side of the city of Jerusalem. It is not a high mountain. It is only about sixty meters (two hundred feet) higher than Jerusalem.

People called it the Mount of Olives because it had olive trees growing on it. If olive trees are not known in your area, here are some ways to translate it:

• Write the word Olives according to the sounds of your language and add a descriptive phrase. For example:

Hill where the fruit called olive grows
-or-
Hill of the trees called olive
-or-
Olive Mountain/Hill

• Borrow the word that means Olives from another language. If this word is not well known, you may want to add a descriptive phrase.

Olives: The word Olives can refer to trees of a certain type or to the fruits that grow on those trees. Here in 11:1b it refers to a kind of tree on which the olive fruit grows.

The olive fruit grows on trees. It is small and round with a hard seed inside. The olive was an essential food in ancient times. It was pressed into oil that was used in cooking and in some rituals. The oil was also used as fuel for lamps and in medicine and cosmetics.

General Comment on 11:1a–b

The background information in 11:1a–b is part of a longer sentence in Greek. The Berean Standard Bible ends this sentence at the end of 11:2. In some languages it may be necessary to use a separate sentence or sentences for the background information. For example:

As Jesus and his followers were coming closer to Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives. (New Century Version)
-or-
When Jesus and his companions came close to the city of Jerusalem, they arrived near the outlying villages of Bethphage and Bethany. These villages were on/near Olive Mountain.

11:1c

Jesus sent out two of His disciples: Jesus told two disciples to go ahead of him to do a particular task. Use an appropriate verb in your language for telling people to go and do something.

disciples: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as disciples means “learners” who are in a special relationship with a teacher. The learners commit themselves to their teacher in order to learn from him and live according to his teaching and example. In the New Testament a disciple referred specifically to a person who was learning from a religious teacher. A disciple often lived with his teacher and followed him wherever he went.

Here are some other ways to translate disciples:

• Use a term that refers to someone who learns from a teacher or an expert. It is helpful if the term also implies that the learner is often with his teacher. For example:

learners/students
-or-
apprentices

Be careful not to use a term that would refer only to a student in a school or classroom.

• Use a term that refers to someone who follows a teacher or leader by obeying his teaching. It is helpful if this term also implies learning from the teacher and actually following the teacher wherever he goes. For example:

followers
-or-
those who are committed/faithful (to a teacher/leader)

See disciple in the Glossary.

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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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