4:51 While he was on his way down, 1 his slaves 2 met him and told him that his son was going to live. 4:52 So he asked them the time 3 when his condition began to improve, 4 and 5 they told him, “Yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon 6 the fever left him.” 4:53 Then the father realized that it was the very time 7 Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he himself believed along with his entire household.
1 sn While he was on his way down. Going to Capernaum from Cana, one must go east across the Galilean hills and then descend to the Sea of Galilee. The 20 mi (33 km) journey could not be made in a single day. The use of the description on his way down shows the author was familiar with Palestinian geography.
2 tn Traditionally, “servants.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.
3 tn Grk “the hour.”
4 tn BDAG 558 s.v. κομψότερον translates the idiom κομψότερον ἔχειν (komyoteron ecein) as “begin to improve.”
5 tn The second οὖν (oun) in 4:52 has been translated as “and” to improve English style by avoiding redundancy.
6 tn Grk “at the seventh hour.”
7 tn Grk “at that hour.”