8:34 Then 5 Jesus 6 called the crowd, along with his disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to become my follower, 7 he must deny 8 himself, take up his cross, 9 and follow me.
1 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Grk “As he reclined at table.”
3 tn Grk “his.”
4 sn The tax collectors would bid to collect taxes for the Roman government and then add a surcharge, which they kept. Since tax collectors worked for Rome, they were viewed as traitors to their own people and were not well liked.
5 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
6 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Grk “to follow after me.”
8 tn This translation better expresses the force of the Greek third person imperative than the traditional “let him deny,” which could be understood as merely permissive.
9 sn To bear the cross means to accept the rejection of the world for turning to Jesus and following him. Discipleship involves a death that is like a crucifixion; see Gal 6:14.
9 sn Since women usually carried these jars, it would have been no problem for the two disciples (Luke 22:8 states that they were Peter and John) to recognize the man Jesus was referring to.
13 tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
14 sn The guards would have been the guards of the chief priests who had accompanied Judas to arrest Jesus.