7:24 When 1 John’s messengers had gone, Jesus 2 began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness 3 to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 4
8:22 One 5 day Jesus 6 got into a boat 7 with his disciples and said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” So 8 they set out,
1 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
2 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Or “desert.”
4 tn There is a debate as to whether one should read this figuratively (“to see someone who is easily blown over?”) or literally (Grk “to see the wilderness vegetation?…No, to see a prophet”). Either view makes good sense, but the following examples suggest the question should be read literally and understood to point to the fact that a prophet drew them to the desert.
5 tn Grk “Now it happened that one.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here δέ (de) has not been translated either.
6 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 sn A boat that held all the disciples would be of significant size.
8 tn Grk “lake, and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the response to Jesus’ request. In addition, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.