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OET (OET-LV) Therefore many of the apprentices/followers having_heard of_him said, this the message is hard, who is_able to_be_hearing of_it?
OET (OET-RV) But even many of his followers who heard it said, “This is difficult teaching—it’s too hard to take.”
This section describes Jesus’ followers dividing into groups. Many of them rejected Jesus’ teaching that he was the bread of life, and they stopped following him. But the twelve (12) apostles, with Simon Peter speaking for them, understood that Jesus brought them true words from God that give life.
Here are other possible titles for this section:
Simon Peter recognized that Jesus had the words of eternal life
Many of Jesus’ followers stopped following him
Jesus’ teaching made many of his followers unhappy. They did not understand how he could be the living bread, or how they could eat him. In this paragraph Jesus responded to their complaints. He insisted that he came from God and that his words brought life from God.
On hearing it, many of His disciples said,
¶ When Jesus’ disciples heard his words, many of them said,
¶ Jesus’ disciples heard what he said. Many of them said,
¶ After hearing what Jesus had taught/said,
On hearing it, many of His disciples said: All of Jesus’ disciples heard what he said. But not all of them said what follows. Make this clear in a way that is natural in your translation. For example:
His disciples heard it/this. Many of them said…
When the followers of Jesus heard this, many of them said… (NCV)
it…His: This is the beginning of a new section and paragraph. So it may be natural to make explicit who and what these pronouns refer to. For example:
his teaching/words…Jesus’
disciples: The word disciples here refers to Jesus’ followers in general, not to the twelve apostles.
“This is a difficult teaching.
“This is a difficult/hard teaching.
“It is hard to believe this/your(sing) teaching.
many of his disciples criticized it.
This is a difficult teaching: The disciples were saying that this teaching was hard or difficult to accept (see 6:60c). They were not complaining that it was hard to understand.
Here are other ways to translate this clause:
What he said is hard to accept.
This is a hard teaching. (NIV)
In some languages it may be natural to translate 6:60a–b as two independent clauses or sentences. For example:
Jesus’ disciples listened to what he was teaching. Then many of them began to say, “This teaching is difficult to accept.”
Jesus’ disciples heard what he said, but many of them complained/grumbled that his teaching was difficult.
The idea is that this metaphor offended people. It was not acceptable.
Who can accept it?”
How can we accept it?”
We cannot agree with it.”
They declared that it was not acceptable.
Who can accept it?: The Greek expression that the BSB translates as Who can accept it? is more literally “who can hear it?” It is the same verb that is used in 6:60a. Here there are three ways to understand this clause:
It means “who can accept it?” For example:
How could anyone accept it? (NJB) (BSB, NIV, NCV, NLT, NJB, NABRE, NRSV)
It means “who can listen to it?” For example:
How can anyone listen to such talk? (REB) (ESV, NASB, GNT, KJV, REB, RSV)
It means “who can understand it?” For example:
Who can understand it? (NET) (NET, CEV)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). It is followed by many English translations and seems to make the best sense in this context. Even interpretation (2) can be understood to imply that they could not listen to it because they could not accept it. People left Jesus because they were offended and could not accept his teaching.
This is a rhetorical question. Its purpose is to make the statement that no one could accept this teaching. There are at least two ways to translate this rhetorical question:
Use a rhetorical question. For example:
How can anyone accept it? (NLT)
Use a statement. For example:
It is not acceptable.
Translate this rhetorical question in a way that is natural in your language.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / ellipsis
ἀκούσαντες
˓having˒_heard
John leaves out a word that a clause would need in many languages to be complete. If it would be helpful in your language, you could supply these words from the context. Alternate translation: [having heard this]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy
ἐστιν ὁ λόγος οὗτος
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: πολλοί Οὖν ἀκούσαντες ἐκ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ εἶπον σκληρός ἐστίν ὁ λόγος οὗτος τίς δύναται αὐτοῦ ἀκούειν)
Here, word stands for what Jesus had just spoken to the crowd in verses [26–58](../06/26.md). If this might confuse your readers, you could express the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [What he has just said is] or [These words are]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
σκληρός
hard
Here, hard refers to something that causes a negative reaction because it is harsh or unpleasant. It does not refer to something that is difficult to understand, but something that is difficult to accept. You could include this information if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [hard to accept] or [offensive]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / rquestion
τίς δύναται αὐτοῦ ἀκούειν?
who ˓is˒_able ˱of˲_it ˓to_be˒_hearing
The disciples use the question form for emphasis. If this would be confusing in your language, you could translate these words as a statement or an exclamation and communicate the emphasis in another way. Alternate translation: [no one is able to listen to it!] or [it is too hard to listen to!]
OET (OET-LV) Therefore many of the apprentices/followers having_heard of_him said, this the message is hard, who is_able to_be_hearing of_it?
OET (OET-RV) But even many of his followers who heard it said, “This is difficult teaching—it’s too hard to take.”
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
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